Monday, June 28, 2010

What Mrs. N's Been Reading - The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To


Finished D.C. Pierson's The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Needed To a few days ago. Honestly, I'm still deciding how I feel about this one. Darren, one of the main characters, is a relatively nerdy high school student who likes to draw. He pretty much keeps to himself, until another, even nerdier student, Eric, notices his drawings, asks serious questions about them, and doesn't make fun of Darren or the drawings. In fact they quickly discover a shared love of sci-fi, and soon are hanging out together, developing a full-scale series of movies, and books, based on their character and story ideas. Eventually Eric confides in Darren and tells him something about himself that he has kept quiet. He never sleeps. Never has. Ever. He doesn't get tired either, but Darren later sees the periodic, near-breakdowns, that Eric suffers as a result of never having the down brain time that everyone else does. Together, they start trying to test the limits and consequences of Eric's "ability." Along the way, a girl comes between them, and Darren breaks the confidence in retaliation. Suddenly big, mean men are looking for Eric in order to run tests on him. When Darren and Eric go on the run, Darren learns something even more fantastic about the extent of Eric's "ability" that makes it even more dangerous. Due to a bit of language, and some mature, though not really graphic content, this one is for high school, not middle school students. Generally, pretty funny, with some teenage angst, and sci-fi stuff thrown in as well. Enjoy!

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