B.G.

Anyone who has attended an American public high school can identify with The B.G. It is written in three parts: school year, suicide, and abuse of teenagers. Part one portrays a normal year in high school, following some students and their attendant tribulations and triumphs. The second part deals with two young women who have never been loved...both Tori and Dawn consider suicide. Years later some of the teens in the first part attend a class reunion in the final pages, having matured and outlived their perilous teenage years. The final part, Save the Dogs, presents a parallel between feral dogs and feral adults, the dogs attacking farm animals, and the adults targeting teenagers. The end of the book brings together the first two parts and provides a positive solution-wrapping up a "normal" American high school. The bottom line: kids matter.