Shoot the teacher

SHOOT THE TEACHER
By: David Belbin

During the couple of days that pass in this book, lots of
things happen. A boy in his mid teens becomes to heavy a
burden for his mother to carry. She kicks him out. Her
divorced husband gets to take care of Adam. Adam and his
father, who Adam calles Simon, move to a new place with a
new school where Simon is a teacher. The very first day
they're involved in a shooting. But there is more to come!
Three people are shot and killed in only a few days. There
are many theories of hwo comitted the killings. Simon is the
main suspect, however he's found innocent. Instead the find
that the murderer is Adam's only friend Naomi, who was the
stepdaughter of the first victim.

Adam is in the beginning of the book a rebellious young
man. The typical teenager in revolt. He's growing his hair
long, refusing to go to school and talking back to his
mother. He seemes to calm down quite a bit though in just a
few days. As a matter of fact, as soon they arrive at the new
school, Adam seemes to be more mature and calm. Maybe
that's because he doesn't have any friends in the new school,
maybe because he feels inferior being the new kid and
outsider that he is.

Adam's relationship to his father seemes to vary a lot. At
first Adam looks at his father as if he was a perfect
stranger.And he has all rights to do that since they practicly
hadn't seen each other att all since Adam was born. Then
some kind of a father-son friendship evolves, but I get the
feeling that it's only because they feel they have to. When
Simon is accused of murder, Adam starts to hate him.
Perhaps stop caring about it, is a better way of describing
Adam's feelings towards his dad.

The author used a technique with many enviromental
descriptions. He didn't use a lot of fancy words, probably
because it is a youth book. I am amazed by the number of
times the author used the verb shrug. At least once every
other page. The plot is well written so that you can't tell
who the murderer is until the very last page, or at least the
last chapter.
I usually don't like this kind of books. Actually I don't like
books at all. I enyojed this one though. Once I got started
reading it, I could hardly put it down.