Rat
3/5
()
About this ebook
When Jerome is shot and killed, Colin regrets not speaking up earlier. Jerome's killer is now known but has not been located by the police. When the police show up, Colin tells them what he knows, and while he realizes that he has some enemies, he also has some real admirers as well.
Lesley Choyce
Lesley Choyce is an award-winning author of more than 100 books of literary fiction, short stories, poetry, creative nonfiction, young adult novels and several books in the Orca Soundings line. His works have been shortlisted for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, the White Pine Award and the Governor General’s Literary Award, among others. Lesley lives in Nova Scotia.
Read more from Lesley Choyce
Sea of Tranquility: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cold Clear Morning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nova Scotia Shaped by the Sea: A Living History Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Sudden Impact Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Deconstructing Dylan Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Wave Warrior Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Republic of Nothing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thunderbowl Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Running the Risk Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Refuge Cove Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Shoulder the Sky Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reckless Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ledge Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPeggy’s Cove: The Amazing History of a Coastal Village Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSkate Freak Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crash Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmoke and Mirrors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Breaking Point Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Off the Grid Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSaltwater Chronicles: Notes on Everything Under the Nova Scotia Sun Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Thing You're Good At Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsScam Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIdentify Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDance the Rocks Ashore Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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Reviews for Rat
4 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5School pisses Colin off; so do his teachers who view him as a troublemaker. But what really pisses him off are the bullies who get away with it because no one wants to break the code of silence that the bullies rely on. When Colin interrupts Liam and Craig picking on an old man during lunch break, the vice principal catches the tail end where the old man yells at Colin and he gets in trouble for it. He also winds up on Liam and Craig’s hit list and a photoshopped, nude photo of Colin winds up on GoofFace. Colin could handle that because the body wasn’t even his and anyone would see that. But when pictures of his female friends begin appearing and Emily, a fellow outcast, tells him that she thinks Liam and Craig did it to retaliate for the girls turning them down, Colin feels he has to do something about it and considers defying the unwritten social rules of no snitching. The unwritten code is so pervasive in the school that even the vice principal accuses him of ratting when he comes to tell him what is happening. This book for reluctant readers provides a realistic portrayal of timely topics including cyberbullying, sexual harassment, and school violence.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Lesley Choyce’s urban tale Rat has all the makings of a story that boys who consider themselves to be misunderstood might cherise. Rat’s main character, Colin, is a secretly smart and artistic kid that has been labeled as a “troublemaker” by adults in authority that is just out to get him; the kind of lone wolf that would bother saving an old man from two bullies but somehow gets blamed for the man’s harassment. Choyce goes to great lengths to make sure the reader is utterly sure of Colin’s badassdom; he smokes occasionally, he claims he “more or less raised” himself, and he has a thing for ferocious rats, whom he adopts as a sort of spirit animal. Yet he is also a martyr, out to find justice for girls whose faces have been photoshopped onto nude bodies and subsequently circulated around the school, and he does not care what kind of enemies he makes along the way. (Colin is similarly intimidated and photoshopped, but it never bothers him because he is a badass, remember?)Rat is clunky at best, and its characters feel half-formed. The portrayal of Colin’s closest friend, Emily, a dreadlocked, activist, hippy-type, is often contradictory, where one minute she is a damsel in distress begging for Colin’s help and the next she is angry at him for helping her. However, any story about social media bullying and school violence is timely and worthwhile for teenage readers, no matter how skillfully that story is told.
Book preview
Rat - Lesley Choyce
Rat
Lesley Choyce
ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS
Copyright © 2012 Lesley Choyce
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now
known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Choyce, Lesley, 1951-
Rat [electronic resource] / Lesley Choyce.
(Orca soundings)
Electronic monograph.
Issued also in print format.
ISBN 978-1-4598-0302-2 (PDF).--ISBN 978-1-4598-0303-9 (EPUB)
I. Title. II. Series: Orca soundings (Online)
PS8555.H668R38 2012 jC813'.54 C2012-902574-7
First published in the United States, 2012
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012938207
Summary: Tired of bullies at school, Colin decides to take a stand. Branded
a rat, he finds that standing up for what you believe in can be empowering.
Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing
programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada
through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts,
and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council
and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.
Cover photography by Dreamstime.com
www.orcabook.com
15 14 13 12 • 4 3 2 1
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter One
It’s not like I’ve assigned myself the job of protector of the weak or anything. I just get tired of creeps at school harassing people who don’t deserve it. I mean, a lot of things really piss me off. School in general pisses me off. And that includes the teachers. Most of them see me as a troublemaker, and I wouldn’t want to have it any other way.
But there are some kids at school who are hard at work practicing to be the true scum of the earth. You know the type I’m talking about. If you’re not the one being worked over in one way or another by these dorks, then you just turn the other way. We all know the drill. Don’t get involved. Don’t rat on anyone.
I just don’t think it should work that way. Funny thing is, though, whenever I try to bring a little honesty into this crazy, screwed-up world, I’m the one who gets his ass kicked in one form or another.
Take this for example.
During lunchtime awhile back, I was walking back to school after eating a not-so-great greasy hamburger and stale French fries. I was reminding myself that my friend Emily was right. I should give up that crap and become a vegetarian. I was almost back to school and anxious to get on with what looked to be a monumentally boring afternoon. That’s when I saw Liam and Craig harassing some old geezer carrying a couple of bags of groceries. The old guy was kind of bent over and walking funny. I don’t know why I even noticed. I was across the street, and there was a lot of traffic, but it was like I had radar or something.
So I crossed over right away, ignoring the cars honking at me and the one idiot who had to screech to a halt so he didn’t kill me. He shot me the finger, and I thumped smartly on the hood of his Lexus.
I felt a knot in my stomach (it could have been the greasy burger) as I walked up to Liam and Craig. I heard Liam shouting at the old guy, C’mon, I’m sure you have some spare cash you can lend us. You look like you have plenty.
You had to be there to hear the real nastiness in the way he said this.
The old guy just shook his head and tried to keep walking. But just then, Craig walked forward and put himself right in the way. The old man tried to walk around, but Craig had him covered again.
Craig, you stupid piece of garbage,
I shouted. Leave him alone!
Craig looked at me like I had punched him in the face.
Leave him alone,
I said again.
Liam gave me the once-over too, but then turned back to Mr. Groceries and said, Maybe we can just make do with something in the bag. You got anything good in there?
Liam had his hand on the cloth grocery bag and was trying to reach inside. The old man was trying to pull away, and he