Do Not Pass Go

Title: Do Not Pass Go
Author: Kirkpatrick Hill
Pub: Simon & Schuster Children's Pub; 2007
Pages:229
Genre: Middle Grades; Realistic Fiction
Etc: Sunshine State Young Readers

Do Not Pass Go is a real quick read. The print is large, the chapters are digestible, and the main character is a boy named Deet. Three reasons that make it a good book for reluctant readers, especially boys.

Deet has a great relationship with his family, even if he tends to be the mature one. His mom and dad are both pretty impulsive, living moment to moment, paycheck to paycheck. And his two sisters are really two young to be anything but kids. Deet's pretty okay with all of this because for the most part things always gets taken care of, one way or the other.

But then, Deet's dad gets arrested for drugs. Evidently in order to keep up with his two jobs, Dad began to rely on uppers to stay awake. Living in a small town, Deet is terrified his peers will tease him - everything is published in the town paper. Plus, his father was the only source of income, how will they survive.

Everyone in the family has to make changes: Deet understands what it's like to be in his parent's shoes, his folks learn that they have to make some changes in budgeting, and Deet's friends realize that sometimes a bad decision is not the end of the world.

I think that this book was trying to be poignant but bit off more than it could chew. The moral, that just because you make a bad decision doesn't mean you're a bad person, was a little too black and white when we're dealing with people going to jail/prison. I think that it's a heavy topic that needs more substance than what this book was able to give. With that being said, I do believe that some of my students will really love it because their age prevents much abstract thought.