Book Review: Carter Finally Gets It by Brent Crawford

• Hardcover: 304 pages


• Publisher: Hyperion Books CH (April 7, 2009)


• ISBN: 1423112466


• List Price: $6.40


• I finished this book on January 17
  

Kayso, I'm giving this book as a selection for the Book Club I run at school because we will be meeting the author at the Teen Book Festival in May. I can't wait for them to read it because I know they will love it.
The story is about Carter, a brand new baby Freshman boy with ADD and a stutter. Our story starts during the summer right before school starts. Anyone who teaches high school knows that Freshmen are really 8th graders for a good portion of 9th grade. Carter, whose ADD makes it very hard to focus on anything, is definitely immature. He's part of the popular crew and he plays football, though he doesn't really like it. He goes to high school parties he doesn't really want to go to, and he tries like whoa to have sex with some girls. He makes a lot of mistakes. Many of them are embarrassing. He accidentally breaks some hearts and has his broken.
The book has many qualities you'd expect from a book told by a 14 year old boy. There are fart jokes (I don't care who you are, fart jokes are always hilarious) and many deep thoughts on the differences between girl boobs and lady boobs (boobs are pretty much the only thing Carter can focus on).
The author, Brent Crawford, also suffers from ADD. He presumably also once suffered from being a 14 year old boy. His writing style is real and engaging, even if the narrative seems on fast forward sometimes (much like the VHS tape that Carter buys in the book. Hint: it's porn). Crawford is also an actor, and apparently a jean aficionado - which is weird but kind of awesome.
The book goes from slapsticky to serious smoothly. The whole last fourth of it just tickled my high school nerd girl so hard, but I'll let you figure it out for yourself. I'll leave you with my favorite quote from Carter:

"I think when you tap into something that you really want to do, you have to fight for it, even if the fight is with yourself."

Soundtrack: Luck Be a Lady Tonight from Guys and Dolls
(You'll have to read the book to figure out why)