Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to search

Children's Fiction General

Not With a Bang

by (author) Gail Sidonie Sobat

Publisher
Palimpsest Press
Initial publish date
Sep 2012
Category
General, General, Adolescence
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781926794129
    Publish Date
    Sep 2012
    List Price
    $14.95

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Description

Jan is a 17 year-old kid in trouble with the law. Al is a feisty old coot. Paired together because Jan must serve community service hours at a seniors? residence after pleading guilty to a marijuana possession offense, the two initially resent each other. Gradually, the curmudgeonly Al becomes mentor and father-figure to the young delinquent. Through the old man's guidance and the boy's re-framing of a series of bad dreams, Jan begins to imagine other possibilities. He learns to value compassion and decency as part of successful human relationships. Making a choice to leave behind his unsavory past, Jan falls in love with young Jodi, with books, with ideas and writing because of Al's influence. When the old man is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Jan resolves to be bodyguard to Al. With this choice, one life ends and another begins.

About the author

Gail Sidonie Sobat is an award-winning author for children, teens and young adults. Her novel, Gravity Journal, was a 2009 White Pine Honour Book, a Moonbeam Gold Award winner, and was nominated for the 2011 Stellar Award. Gail is also the creator and coordinator of YouthWrite, camps for kids who love to write, and of SWYC (Spoken Word Youth Choir). Not With a Bang is her ninth book.

Gail Sidonie Sobat's profile page

User Reviews

Not With a Bank

A beautifully written novel about a troubled directionless 17 year-old who gets caught with drugs on him. Jan must volunteer at a senior's residence and he becomes paired with a cranky old guy who evolves into a wonderful poetry mentor. I read this because Gail Sidonie Sobat and I are partnered to speak at a panel at Saskatoon's Word on the Street and I was wowed by her refreshingly different slant to a teen working with senior. In my story crush. candy. corpse, the 16 year old girl learns about her own affection for older helpless dementia patients while in Not With A Bang, the wise old curmudgeon guides Jan onto a path. I hope as I grow older I'm Gail's character rather than my own.

Other titles by

Related lists