Reviews

Gr 6-8-Thirteen-year-old Leon Noside (Edison spelled backwards) Harris has spent a lifetime hating the middle name his father gave him as an insult to Thomas Edison. Smart-mouthed and gifted, he uses his creative resources-a talent he inherited from parents who spend hours concocting their own inventions whether in the garage or the kitchen-to make an avant-garde sex-education video that tells kids that masturbation is normal. Leon is suspended, and the students stage a near riot, complete with "Free Leon Harris" signs. This isn't the first time that Mrs. Smollet, the program director for the gifted pool, has had negative encounters with her students, but it is the first time that Leon is a hero at school. The administration is challenged to sort out the real problem: Is it Leon, or Mrs. Smollet? This funny, fast-paced novel is filled with characters who epitomize the middle school experience, and it presents a lesson or two about free speech as well.-Pat Scales, formerly at South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities, Greenville Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

Wisecracking Leon Harris narrates Selzer's debut novel with heavy doses of sarcasm, smart aleck wit and adolescent frustration. Now an eighth grader, Leon participates in an advanced studies activity along with several of his equally intelligent, socially outcast friends. For their first assignment, each advanced student must film an educational health or safety advisory video to be shown to the younger middle-school students. Leon signs up for the sex-ed video and decides to deviate from boring anatomical line drawings and cheesy cartoons in favor of a surreal, avant-garde video inspired by Fellini (Leon's film is entitled La Dolce Pubert) and Salvador Dal!. He features a montage of classical nudes with close-ups on the good parts and frank rhyming narration that comes off as quite comical (We stood against adulthood's door,/ trying to comprehend, and hoping to score). But the moralistic teacher who heads the gifted program finds Leon's video inappropriate for the student body, and her interference results in Leon's suspension (which naturally sends students' interest in the video skyrocketing). Ultimately Leon achieves victory, as students and faculty alike rally behind him. Readers with a similarly unconventional bent may well empathize with Leon's attitude toward school, his budding relationships and the adults who seemingly don't understand him. Ages 12-up. (Feb.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

"In his debut, Selzer manages to capture the voice of a smarter-thanaverage young teen as he humorously observes his parents, the teachers and his classmates. . . . There's definite appeal in the 'kid-wins-over-teacher' plot and some real laughs along the way to victory.""--Kirkus Reviews"

"From the Paperback edition."