Crooked » (Reissue)

Laura McNeal is a freelance journalist and former English teacher. Tom McNeal
is the critically acclaimed author of many short stories and the adult novel Goodnight, Nebraska, winner of the 1999 James A. Michener Memorial Prize. The McNeals are married and live in Fallbrook, California.

Clara Wilson has a lot on her mind. Her best friend, Gerri, has started moving in circles that will never in a million years include Clara and her crooked nose. Clara's parents are fighting again, and her mom keeps talking about teaching in France. At least Clara still has Hambone, her loyal dog. And her crush on Amos McKenzie, of course.

Amos McKenzie doesn't much like home these days. His dad's corny questions are bugging him more than usual, and his mom's gone religious for no apparent reason. On top of that, he's starting to fall for a major dink, Clara Wilson. And as it turns out, he's not the only one...

The Tripp Brothers are the biggest delinquents in town. They smash mailboxes, shoplift groceries, and cruise around in their Seduck (half sedan, half truck). They've just turned their sights on the school's newest, cutest couple. And that can only mean one thing for Clara and Amos: danger.

Clara and Amos—their lives turned upside down by each other, their families, and the two meanest brothers in town—discover that honesty may be the answer...but it can be awfully hard to find. In this emotionally compelling and suspenseful young adult novel, Laura and Tom McNeal present a searingly accurate look at life in ninth grade—where thrills, heartbreak, and intimidation can take place at a locker, in the lunchroom, or in a bathroom stall.

Horn Book Magazine

Clara Wilson's normal life is changing: her best friend dumps her for a more popular group, and her parents' marriage is clearly in trouble. Then one day, her mother walks out on her department-store job and doesn't return home, leaving Clara and her father to fend for themselves. Across town, Amos Mackenzie, who's in ninth grade with Clara, also finds his comfortably familiar life changing around him. His father makes frequent visits to the doctor for an undisclosed illness, and his mother has suddenly become religious. When Amos inadvertently interrupts bad boys Charles and Eddie Tripp in an act of vandalism, he wins a gash in the head from the brutal Charles and becomes an overnight hero. Amidst the swirl of events, a mutual crush between Amos and Clara begins to grow, despite perpetual hindrances such as Amos's newfound popularity; his old friend Bruce, master of the prank phone call; and competition for Clara's affections by none other than Eddie Tripp. Clara is both scared and excited by the dangerously charming Eddie, who seems not-quite-so threatening as his older brother Charles. But the danger proves all too real in a terrifying climax that reveals everyone's true nature. Set during the dark winter days in a small town, Crooked explores both commonly accepted cruelties and vicious criminality, yet the tangibl yearning and imprefect goodness of both protagonists prevents the novel itself from succumbing to darkness. The crooked slope of Clar's nose---"the thing [she] worried most about....before everything stopped being normal"---dwindles in significance as both she and Amos bravely face their fears and stand up for themselves. The strands of their stories are cleverly intertwined in this well-plotted and engaging novel.