Plot Summary
Fourteen year-old Jamie, or "Punkzilla" as his new friends call him, is on a Greyhound bus from Portland, Oregon to Memphis, Tennessee. His mission is to visit his gay older brother, Peter, who is dying from cancer. Jamie tells the reader his story through letters that he writes to his brother in a journal he keeps. Jamie runs away from a military school where his abusive father and absent mother sent him. While living on the streets of Portland he commits crimes to make money and tries crystal meth. Along his bus journey Jamie gets mugged, befriends a female-to-male transsexual, loses his virginity, and gets taken advantage repeatedly both mentally and physically. He knows its because of his androgynous appearance and he hates the fact that puberty is so slow to arrive. Jamie is an angry, lost soul, but in his quest and love for his brother there is a person worth saving. Will Jamie realize this? Will he get to his brother on time?
Critical Evaluation
Punkzilla is told from fourteen year-old Jamie's point of view. The reader gets a glimpse into his world through lettters he writes to his dying brother. The descriptions of his acts are both raw and real and may be hard to handle for the younger reader. There are violent scenes in which Jamie punches a woman in the chest. There are also a lot of sexually explicit scenes that involve older men and young boys. The book is very disturbing, but depicts a character so real. Readers who pick this book up will want Jamie to find salvation because of all the suffering in his life. Definitely a controversial book, but well worth the read.
Reader's Annotation
Fourteen year-old Jamie is a criminal runaway on a bus trip to see his dying brother.
About the Author
Adam Rapp lives in New York City. He is the author of Under the Wolf, Under the Dog, an L.A. Times Book Prize finalist and Schneider Family Book Award winner. His book, 33 Snowfish is an American Library Association Top Ten Books for Young Adults.
Rapp is also an accomplished playwright and screenwriter.
Genre
Issues, Homelessness, Substance Abuse
Curriculum Ties
Sociology
Booktalking Ideas
1) Discuss the effectiveness of Rapp's use of letters to tell the story of Jamie.
2) Discuss why you think Jamie finds himself in such bad situations. Are they entirely his fault?
Reading Level/Interest Age
Ages 15+
Challenge Issues
Drug use, criminal activity, sex, language
Challenge defense ideas
-Become familiar with the book and its content.
-Refer to the collection development policy of the library, see
http://sfpl.org/pdf/about/policies/collection-development-plan.pdf
-Refer to reviews from Booklist, School Library Journal, and Publisher’s Weekly available for viewing on amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Punkzilla-Adam-Rapp/dp/0763652970/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1292467704&sr=1-1
-Try to get reviews of the book from teens who have read it.
Why Included in Titles Selected
I'm a big fan of Adam Rapp especially after reading 33 Snowfish.
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