Dead Ends

July 29, 2013
Lange (Butter) explores the friendship that forms between a rage-filled 16-year-old named Dane and his new neighbor, Billy D., who has Down syndrome. Although Dane is a bully, he draws
the line at picking on the disabled (“Standards, y’know?”), and when he’s
offered a chance to avoid suspension by helping Billy out, he accepts it reluctantly. The boys bond over their missing fathers—Dane doesn’t know who his is, and Billy’s mother kicked his father out and moved across the country—and decide, with help from neighborhood skate punk Seely, to track down Billy’s father. Their investigation leads to road trips and revelations about their pasts. With confident storytelling, Lange ably develops Dane’s romance with Seely and his friendship with Billy, but a few details sour the story a bit. A subplot in which Dane’s working-class mother regularly wins the lottery (but refuses to cash her tickets) shouts of middle-class privilege; worse, Billy essentially exists to give Dane the epiphany he needs. The core story should keep readers interested if they can overlook those problems. Ages 14–up. Agent: Jennifer Laughran, Andrea Brown Literary Agency.

October 1, 2013

Gr 8 Up-High school junior Dane has anger management issues. Although he is an excellent student, he is one suspension away from expulsion, and he must spend time with his neighbor Billy D., a boy with Down syndrome, to work off his detentions. What begins as a community-service project slowly turns into real friendship. Both boys have single mothers; Billy wants to find his missing father, but Dane wants nothing to do with his. Billy is obsessed with an atlas full of riddles his father left him and is convinced that they point to his dad's whereabouts. He draws Dane and their friend Seely into solving the mystery, but as they get closer to Billy's father, a sad truth appears about why Billy's mother left the man. Although the story has anger, abuse, and bullying at its core, it never feels heavy-handed, possibly because of the well-realized relationships between characters. Dane and his mother are close and loving even as they drive each other crazy. Billy and Dane's friendship is based on their similarities: they are both fatherless, have tempers, and appreciate cute girls. Dane grows up over the course of the story; he realizes he needs help in controlling his anger and seeks it out. He also gains a girlfriend in Seely and treats her well. Lange writes realistically about teens with rough lives, and readers will believe in the friendships, feel Billy's pain of abandonment, and appreciate the honesty of the not-tied-up-with-a-bow ending.-Geri Diorio, Ridgefield Library, CT

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