The Weirdo
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
A reclusive teenager finds love while searching for his friend’s killer in this Edgar Award-winning YA mystery—“timely and compelling” (Publishers Weekly).
Seventeen-year-old Chip Clewt is known to most people simply as “the weirdo.” After barely surviving a terrible fire, he’s taken to living like a hermit in the Powhatan Swamp, a National Wildlife Refuge in South Carolina. These days, Chip works for the Refuge and has little contact with anyone besides his boss, Tom. But now his hideaway is at the center of a heated controversy.
As the hunting ban on the Powhatan is about to expire, environmentalists want to protect the wildlife while eager hunters are oiling their guns. And when Tom disappears, Chip suspects that the conflict has turned deadly. While his new friend Samantha inspires Chip to reconnect, the pair must also connect the dots of a puzzling and dangerous mystery before it’s too late.
Includes a reader's guide.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Environmentalism provides the political backdrop for this story of the courage and self-acceptance acquired by ``weirdo'' Chip Clewt, 17, in his fight to save the bear population in a North Carolina swamp. Badly disfigured in a fire, the boy takes refuge from the world with only the bears and Tom, his boss, for company. But when Tom disappears, Chip enlists his new friend Samantha to help prove that the man was murdered by poachers. In an eloquent debate that proves informative and moving, human and animal rights are pitted against each other. This murder mystery/love story/environmental thriller by the author of The Trouble with Tuck weaves an uncommon spell. Deftly drawn characterizations, from the admirable to the loathsome, and an engrossing journalistic format are among the many strong points that make his timely and compelling novel a winner. Ages 12-up.
