Final Takedown

Gr 6—10—Elias and Jordan are in trouble as usual, only this time Elias is rethinking his life. While he continues to smoke joints, get in fights, and try to manage his alcoholic mom, he also gets a job, goes out on a few dates with a cute upper-class girl, and starts to paint and clean up the house. The dating doesn't work out as Amber is more interested in sociology (dating the poor boy) than in getting to know Elias, and by this time he is wondering if he is more than the stoner kid, and if he really wants to do the last takedown that Jordan has planned. The epilogue neatly ties up the story as Elias realizes that everyone makes choices and that Jordan isn't the friend he thought he was: he didn't even make a 911 call as Elias was bleeding and incapacitated from a gunshot. The book has a lot of issues and not a lot of action, but the cover of a teen with a chain-link fence in front of his face will appeal to reluctant readers.—Amy Cheney, Alameda County Library, Oakland, CA