So this book, Freeze Frame, had been sitting on my desk awhile. I didn't know anything about it, just that it was on my reading list. From the MINUTE I opened the page, Ayarbe had me completely hooked. I could not put this book down. I just knew that if I stopped reading, I would be haunted by Kyle's next move and I couldn't take it.
We begin with best friends Jason and Kyle horsing around at breakfast. After they push things too far with Kyle's sister, they decide to head out to the woodshed and see what treasures they can find.
What they find is Kyle's father's gun. And somehow that gun goes off and Jason is shot in the chest. At 10:46 he dies.
Kyle feels like he should be put on trial and convicted of murder. Things can't get any worse than how he already feels. How is he ever going to get over this? It is too large.
While waiting for his trial, Kyle meets with a shrink, a lady that he can't quite get comfortable with. He tries to write the scene of what happened that day, the day when he shot his best friend, but he simply can't remember. When he finds out that his only punishment is to have a parole officer that he meets with in addition to the shrink, he can't wrap his mind around it. How can they just let him go? He should get the death sentence. And maybe that is what the kids at school are for? They don't let him off the hook as easily as the justice system does. They ostracize him, beat him up, force him to stand up for himself...which only gets him into more trouble with his parole officer.
Along the way, though, Kyle forms several cathartic relationships. One is with Jason's younger brother, Chase. Kyle promises Jas that he will watch over his little brother, and it is a promise that he intends to keep. He meets Chase every day after school to protect him from the bullies. Chase dubs him the Orange Dragon because of his shoes and his "job" as bouncer.
Kyle also gets to know the school librarian through In-School-Suspension and through lunches where he doesn't quite feel comfortable enough to eat in the caf. While exploring life's truths through the novels Mr. Cordoba gives him, Kyle starts to learn about what it means to be a friend, to have a friend, and ultimately, to lose a friend.
Love, loss, personal ownership of deeds, and healing are all written so well by Ayarbe that you can't help but get involved in Kyle's life and his feelings.
As a side note, when I wrote the author to tell her how much I enjoyed her novel, she wrote back and was very appreciative. She also shared that Freeze Frame was just announced as the IRA's 2009 Children & YA Fiction Award. Kudos to a job well done!!
To read more from the author about this fantastic book, which is middle and hs appropriate, click here!!
No comments:
Post a Comment