Playground
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
'I wonder what she would've said if I'd told her all the parts the report left out, like how I'd woken up that morning and pulled that sock out of my draw and filled it, one after the other, with the D batteries I'd bought the last time I visited my dad in the city. But there was no way. There was just no way I'd ever tell anyone what really went down that day...'
Thirteen-year-old Butterball doesn't have that much going for him. He's teased about his weight. He hates the suburb his mum moved them to so she could go to nursing school and start her life over. He wishes he still lived with his dad in New York City - where there's always something happening, even if his dad doesn't have much time for him.
Still that's not why he beat up Maurice in the playground.
Now his school is forcing him to talk to some out-of-touch lady therapist, as though she could ever fix him - as though she could ever figure out the truth. No, Butterball's lips are sealed about what happened that day. But some tales can't help being told. And this is one of them.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rapper turned actor and author 50 Cent makes his YA debut with a candid tale about a middle-schooler dealing with pressures from his peers and his broken family. Overweight and nearly friendless, "Butterball" has just been suspended from school for assaulting a classmate with a sock filled with batteries. As he returns to school, visits his father in New York City, and talks to his therapist, Liz, his frustrations come to light. His always-working mother has too little time for him, while his father spends most of their occasional weekends together encouraging his violence (even forcing him to shoplift) and making fun of his weight. Although Butterball benefits from some positive influences, including Liz and his friend Nia, it's his desire to better himself (and his interest in filmmaking) that help him overcome his circumstances and his reputation. 50 Cent's story follows a predictable arc, but he throws in some twists and doesn't hold back when portraying violence or Butterball's difficult home life. Butterball's unrepentant, unpretentious, and authentic narrative voice, meanwhile, is more than enough to carry the story. Ages 12 up.
