STUCK IN NEUTRAL

Imagine not being able to control a single movement of your body. This is life for Shawn, who has cerebral palsy. Most treat him like a vegetable, except for Shawn's dad, a poet, who is sensitive enough to intuit there is more to Shawn than meets the eye. The problem is that Shawn thinks his dad is going to kill him because of it--to release his son from this mortal coil and end his suffering, so to speak. Using the first-person narrative to his advantage, Johnny Heller adeptly voices the frustration Shawn feels at being incapable of communicating while expressing many of the same thoughts, feelings, and fears the average teenager has. Heller convincingly switches between the wry observant voice of 14-year-old Shawn to the emotionally charged voice of Shawn's divorced father, who feels a mixture of shame, guilt, and responsibility for Shawn's future--one they are both unsure of even to the final sentence. M.M.O. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/JUL 02]