Excerpt
Gordys life seemed to be on the right trackuntil he had to move back to his hometown, where everybody knows his familys troubled history. The principal at Gordys school immediately has it in for him, his old pals encourage him to cause trouble, and his one-time nemesis, Elizabeth, hates him more than ever. It seems to Gordy as though the whole world is against him. Will he slip back into his old ways, or will he be able to keep growing into the successful person he was striving to become?"Hahn expertly shows how the expectations of others influence Gordy's behavior, as he struggles to step away from his bad old self; in the end he takes that step, though not without a realistic amount of backsliding….While Gordy's anger is the dominant feeling here, flashes of humor and deftly inserted historical details of the postWW II era lighten the load."--
Kirkus ReviewsMARY DOWNING HAHN is the award-winning author of many popular ghost stories and mysteries, includingDeep and Dark and DangerousandThe Old Willis Place. A former librarian, an avid reader, traveler, and all-around arts lover, Ms. Hahn lives in Columbia, Maryland with her two cats, Oscar and Rufus.www.MaryDowningHahnBooks.com
Born to be bad?
Mueller cleared his throat and went on talking
as if I hadnt said a thing. “On the other hand,
Donald dropped out of school the day he turned
sixteen. Believe me, I wasnt a bit sorry to lose
him.” He paused and gave me another long hard
look. “I wonder which of your brothers you take
after, Gordon.”
It was just the way Id known it would be
everybody remembered my father and my brothers.
They all expected me to turn out every bit as
bad as they had. The only question was, whose
path would I follow? Would I become the town
drunk? Would I drop out of school and blow
up gas stations? Would I desert if another war
started?
When I didnt say anything, Mueller frowned.
“I plan to keep an eye on you, Gordon. Any sign
of misbehavior and Ill come down on you hard.
Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir,” I muttered. His message was clear.
It was my first day at Hyattsdale High, and the
principal already hated me.