Give a Boy a Gun

Tear jerker- loved it

This book teaches us all a lesson. I decided to get this book from my local library because i am a big fan of this author. I was exieted to finally read it because all books i had read by Todd Strasser metioned how he wrote this.
This book is basicaly made up of interveiws to witnesses of a school shooting. But i goes alot deeper than that. It pieces together an unforgetable story. There are times when u wanna take the main characters Gary and Brennen, give em a good shake, and point them in the rite direction. They are the "bad guys" but you find yourself caring for them along the way.
Earlier when i said that this book teaches a lesson, i was talking about the footnotes it has at the bottom of many pages. It shows heartbreaking facts about guns and teens.

Please read, this book connects and stays with you

4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

Reviewed by Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius" for TeensReadToo.com

Every person in the world should read this book. That being said, I'll admit right off that I hate guns. Absolutely abhor them. I'm the mother who refuses to let her children play with toy guns, even water pistols. Why? Why, indeed. Why let your children shoot things at each other--whether it be water, rubber darts, BBs, or paint balls--if you don't want them to shoot bullets at each other? After all, that's what guns are for. To shoot bullets. Bullets that are designed to do one thing, and one thing only--kill. Or, if you prefer, injure, maim, dismember, or wound.

So what is GIVE A BOY A GUN about? In a few words, human nature, the cruelty of children, and how those factors don't really mix well with guns. Oh sure, gun activists say that "guns don't kill people, people kill people." And, if you get technical about it, they're right. But when someone gives you a guitar, what's it for? It produces musical sounds. Yes, it needs an actual human to aide it along, but a guitar does what it's made to do--make music. Just like a gun, with the aide of a human, does what it's supposed to do--kill.

In Todd Strasser's GIVE A BOY A GUN, we learn about Brendan and Gary, two boys who live each day of school in their own personal hell. They're not athletic, so the jocks pick on them. They're not particularly brainy, so they don't fit in with the nerds. They don't come from extremelely wealthy families, so they're not immediately deemed popular. In fact, Brendan and Gary are like 95% of every teenager you meet--normal kids living normal lives, trying their best to just get through the day. I remember all too well the horror and terror of high-school; not physical, at least in my case, but the sheer emotional bullying that I received from kids who deemed me not up to par. And the teachers who turn a blind eye, either because the tormentors were too valuable to the school as athletes, or too much trouble to deal with.

But for Brendan and and Gary, enough turns out to be enough. Really, how much torment can one person take? When teachers and administration and counselors turn the other way, when budget restraints prevent teachers from the ability to really get to know their students, when athleticism takes precedent over brain power, when will school bullying come to an end? Why, really, should it shock us as a nation when things like Columbine happen? Has it really been so long ago that you were in school that you can't remember what it was like to be the object of someone's daily put-downs, or the sneers and snide comments from the "popular" kids?

Gary and Brendan, along with a few others like them, were "outcasts" in their school. When their fascination with revenge on those who've tormented them leads to guns, it really shouldn't surprise anyone. GIVE A BOY A GUN is interspersed with tragic facts--school shootings over the last several decades, quotes from newspaper articles, statistics from gun companies--that prove that teens and guns is a growing problem. But really, when you think about it, why should it shock us? We always see signs that proclaim a school a "drug-free zone", but when will we ever see one that proclaims it a "bully-free zone", or a "tolerance for everyone" zone?....

Read the full review at www.teensreadtoo.com

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Grate book

I hate reading but i read this one and loved it.

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

D

D

Good

It was sad

0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Awesome Book

A good book raising awareness about Teens and guns.

Let's stop this from ever happening again!!

A tale all too chillingly real in current school environments. Two young men, Brendan and Gary are victims of teasing and physical bullying by members of the 'in' group (the jocks on the football team). Unable and unwilling to endure any more abuse they approach teachers and others to get some help to end the harassment. Unfortunately, they are told 'it's in their genes' and 'boys will be boys'. The boys decide to take matters into their own hands and develop a plan of retribution to gain their revenge on the assailants and others who just refuse to get involved. Eerily similar to the incidents at Columbine, this story reads as a wake up call to what happens in school environments. Teachers and administrators, parents and police share responsibility and a share of the blame of the tragedy. The book also contains many statistics about guns and gun control and also resources for help or information to those seeking it. I'm so grateful that this happened only in a book. Let's make this required reading in middle and high school environments and try to abort any possibility of similar events ever happening again.

Highly Recommended - must read !

Give a Boy a Gun walks you through the life of two teenage boys trying to survive high school. After reading this book your whole out look on everything. You won't be able to put the book down because every page just keeps you on the edge of your seat.

GREAT! READDDDD!

The book "Give a Boy a Gun" By Todd Strasser was a very good book. The author built so much tension and I didn't want to put the book down. It was so interesting on how the book was written in a lot of different characters point of view. Also the author made you feel scared for the characters! A one thing I didn't like was the ending of the book. It ended so suddenly and it was also a very short book! Over all I like the book!

Book Review

Give a boy a gun,by Todd Strasser, was a story that kept me glued to its pages. It was a story about a shooting at a school not to different from mine. There were two boys that were made fun of by their peers and when they finally got fed up, they cooked up a plan to get their revenge. The story itself kind of scared me because so many students get shot at schools each year and it keeps on going. I also felt that this story actually gave me the opportunity to look through someone else's eyes and see what they see. Another feeling I had was relief that this hadn't happened at my school. One of my thoughts were that if this happens so often, why aren't these things fixed? The second thought I had was that it was the fault of the students that bullied them, not the two boys that had gone crazy and felt they had to get revenge. If they hadn't been made fun of, this would not have happened. I loved reading this book and I wouldn't mind reading it again and again. Katy L

amazing!

I had to read this book in school for an english strats class. At first I thought it was going to be a stupid book but once I started it I couldn't put it down. I really enjoyed reading it.

Give a Boy a Gun

Give a Boy a Gun, by Todd Strasser, is a realistic, informative novel. With statistics about gun violence on the bottom of every page, this literary work tells a story of two high school boys who are in the process of planning a school shooting, much like Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris of Columbine High School. It gives accounts of many different minor characters, their take on the boys, and their reaction to the school shooting, which has already occurred. This author does a superior job of making this book easy to comprehend for teenagers.
Gary Searle and Brendan Lawlor were tormented everyday at school. They were beaten up, made fun of, pushed into lockers, and given swirlies by the jocks at Middletown High School while the teachers ignored these events. They were stereotypical "outcasts." They played violent video games, "joked" about killing classmates on emails and instant messaging, and did not have very many friends. Throughout the story, the author provides glimpses of their suicide notes. They wanted to get revenge on their bullies and to send a message. Brendan eventually obtained a gun, and Gary researched how to build homemade bombs. The foreboding signs would have all been there if one of the parents or teachers had bothered to pay attention to them.
The author should have taken more time to develop the personalities of the two boys, and he also should have put more explanation into what it took to plan out the school shooting. I was pleased that I read all the way through to the end, as what happens during the shooting was different than what I had anticipated. Strasser succeeds in making every person's account flow nicely and easy to follow. Every high school student should read this book to see how much impact one's treatment of other students can have.

Eh

This book was okay I thought there would b more shooting involved.Dont get me wrong Im not a violent oersin I just like thrilling books. So if ur like me I dont think this book is for u

You definetly wont regret reading this book.

Todd Strasser takes people's interviews and quotes, and arranges them in a unique way to show a story of two depressed and angered kids taking their anger out on a group of kids at a school dance. The interviews and quotes, really put the reader in the scene of the crime. You take this distrubing journey with these two boys in the eyes of others. You get points of view from both sides. When reading this book, I began a self check. Realizing that I can be a voice for these kids who seem to pass under the radar, that I can extend my hand and help kids like this. You realize why these two boys did what they did, and you realize that you can see how they felt they had no other option. I am in no way justifying what they did, I believe that things could have definetly be different, but it was not completely their fault. Children of today are so hurtful, and it so hard for teenagers to find somebody to accept them 100 percent as themselves. But their is God, and sadly to say few teenagers turn to him. So next time you see this at your local book store, please give it a chance.

Give a boy a gun

In the book "Give a Boy a Gun" by Todd Strasser, Brendan and Gary are outcasts at their school. The popular kids torment and bully them every day. The story gets intense when Brendan and Gary bring the guns and bombs to the gym, where the school dance was. They set up traps and explosives on the doors so no one can leave. Brendan and Gary then took all the teachers and students hostage and threatening to kill them all. They tied their hands up and made them lay on their stomachs. They tease and scare all the teachers and students by shooting the ceiling and floor. A couple of people get hit with ricochets. They shoot Sam Flach in both knee caps and let him bleed until, one of Brendan and Gary's friend, Allison, runs up and starts to put belts on the wounds to keep him from bleeding out. They threaten her but neither of them can shoot her. Gary and Brendan then start fighting and then it gets intense. Gary then goes and sits down while Brendan continues to scare and threaten the students and faculty. Gary then commits suicide and afterward, while Brendan is in shock, Dustin Williams tackles him to the ground and the other boys at the school dance beat Brendan into a coma.
In the book had very interested girls, Gary was a quiet kid but troubled. All he wanted to do was be equal but the bullies forced him to become violent. Brendan is a funny and angry kid. He always wanted to kill or bunch the bullies. Sam Flach was one of the bullies that pushed Brandon and Gary over the edge. Sam always picked on Brendan, and Brendan wanted to just kill Sam.
"Whatever that dark thing in Brendan was, it started to become on Gary, Too" -Emily Kirsch,
The quote that Emily said was describing the hatred and anger in Brendan than started to become stronger. She also she was saying how Brendan was building the hatred up in Gary as well and it became really strong. I chose this quote because it shows that even Brendan and Gary's friends were realized the dark and evil thing inside them. It's a very deep and interested quote.
I think this book should be read by students all over the United States. It really gets you thinking. It made me wants to make go out and make a different. It's a very sad, serious and touching book. It shows you the things that kids have to go through in schools. How kids have to leave and deal with at cliquey schools. I agree with everything in this book. This is no doubt an Unforgettable book.

give a boy a gun

Garry and Brendan are best friends at Middletown High and have one thing in common while growing up together. They are constantly bullied by the kids at school. They are verbally and physically abused by the football team and most of the other kids at school, and it seems as if everyone even the teachers are out to get them. For as long as they could remember they have been beat up targeted as losers and outcasts. After years of constant abuse Garry and Brandon decide enough is enough and are going to put an end to the brutality for good, by shooting up the school at a school dance.
Garry Searle seems to be an average boy going to school and going through the everyday life of a teen at high school. But there is a lot more to Garry than it seems. Garry is heavily bullied everyday by his peers and everyday he gets angrier, crazier, and humiliated. Garry isn't very athletic and feels like he doesn't belong with anyone. After all his years of being picked on he gets a plan to take his revenge with his best friend Brendan Lawlor to rig bombs to the school and hold the kids and faculty hostage with guns at a school dance.
Brendan Lawlor is the other half to Garry Searle, and his partner in the school shooting. Like Garry, he is an average boy who gets bullied every single day of his life. And he receives more than average bullying. However unlike Garry, Brendan has many athletic qualities. Brendan is fast, fit, and has the abilities to be good at many sports. However due to the persistent bullying he chooses to be an outcast with Garry and not join any of the school sport teams. Brendan is fed up, and every bit as aggravated with life as Garry.
Allison Findley is Garr's girlfriend and a good friend to Brendan. She hangs out with them both and drives them to practice shooting guns and testing bombs deep in the woods. She chats with them online in chat rooms. Although Allison is friends with them she is not bullied or picked on. She is an average girl and minds her own at school. She has friends and like most kids there are people she doesn't like, or don't like her. But nothing major like Garry and Brendan. She's nice to most, and kind, she listens to how people feel and doesn't judge anyone for how they look or anything. She understands that Garry and Brendan and mad and are humiliated and are not well liked, and she chooses to stay friends with them.
"After we started hanging out, he'd sometimes talk about what it was like when he was younger. About the divorce and how completely nasty it was, and how after it was over, his dad just left and never paid child support or called or anything. That was a huge thorn in Gary's side. He just couldn't get over that." -Allison Findley, Gary's on-and-off girlfriend at Middletown High School
"It was an ugly divorce. All that yelling and fighting. Arguing over money. Gary was caught in the middle, and sometimes I guess I used him to get what I thought I needed. What we both needed. It's a terrible thing to put a child through, but I didn't know what else to do." -Cynthia Searle, Gary's mother.
"As parents, teachers, and other adults look for ways to reach out to young people, some see a common thread in the disappointments and isolation students experience when they lose a sense of place, lose a parental figure, or lose a girlfriend." -Christian Science Monitor, 5/26/99

4090

Just imagine being picked on day after day, Letting them get to you deep down where no one understands. Thats the feeling Brendan and his group of friends felt by the jocks in the town of Middletown. Teasing is everywhere, its basically a way of life, but Brendan sure wasnt happy with his welcoming to MiddleTown with bullies. Thats where the troubles begin.

Gary and Brendan click instantly and become great friends. Although they had each other, they could not break away from the Sam the jock's teasing. They always held thier head high and didnt want to show fear. What bothered them the most was both Gary and Brendan were differnt than the other kids. They wanted to stand out and be indiviuals. Was that the reason they were embraced with teasing? Certainly thats what they thought. Day by day they noticed the teachers taking the sides of the jocks. Brendan and Gary felt ignored and unimportant.

Revenge is always a common thought in teenagers minds. They always want others in pain to make themselves feel better. Indeed they both were seeking revenge on the jocks, To the extent of violence. At the night of the dance was thier plan. Both Brendan and Gary wanted to take as many of thier fellow classmates as possible with them.

As a teenager, i understand that teasing is always there, it's a part of our childhood. Although many horrific events happen because of it(like this story) , its not possible to erase it completely. Although i havent been in the situation, nor do i ever want to be, I do believe that this story reflects all of our lives. We cannot tell when people are hurt, we all hide it inside to make ourselves feel strong. High School is unexpected, and events can happen without notice, good and bad. Reading this book, it made me notice that this can happen anytime, anywhere, and even to anyone. It scares me to death that this is possible. But by just reding this book, i will automatically be nicer to everyone around me, even if i know they are fine. By being nice and considerate, you can make people feel wanted and not pointless. We all can make the world a better place. This book was a message to me. I hope this will start a chain reaction and help others understand

Give a Boy a Gun Review

In Give a Boy a Gun, by Todd Strasser, two high school teenagers are having problems in their school. They don't fit in with the "popular" group and because of it; they get constantly picked on and bullied. The two boys, Gary and Brendan, always get into fights with the jocks and it turns the boys into darker and darker human beings.
The book is told in a creative way. I guess the point of view would be closest to a third person omniscient. The author gives us almost a list of quotes of people that knew Gary and Brendan and that were involved in the story. It's basically like they're all being interviewed about the story of the two. Every now and then it shows a conversation Gary, Brendan, and some of their friends had on the internet. Give a Boy a Gun had some creative ways to get into the mind of the distraught kids. At the bottom of most pages it gives statistics and quotes of actual events that occurred about related problems in the world. My belief is that the author wrote this book to give people an understanding. It's an understanding of the minds of kids that go to school and end up doing outrageous things such as school shootings. The book shows the reality of what can happen if kids are bullied constantly.
The audience for the book is definitely teenagers. It fits high school teenagers well because it is the story of two high school kids, and they do many things in the book that a lot of teenagers are guilty of. For instance, I'm sure a high percentage of kids have been apart of bullying. They were either one of the bullies, being bullied, or someone that didn't step in and stop the bullying. I believe that the author wrote the book to give kids an understanding of the psychological effects of bullying. ".by the way you raised your kids to all be the same and to hate anyone who dares to be a little different.' (pg. 17- part of Brendan's suicide not) It's almost a backwards effect, because the jocks picked on the outsiders, the outsiders become more and more mentally unstable.
I could honestly connect a tiny bit with the Gary and Brendan. I went to school in Arizona and I didn't fit in very well only because the school was so big, and I was new. I didn't; however, get bullied like they did, so I can't connect with them as much. I believe that the author had success in writing the book because Strasser showed the affects in bullying kids, and also for the kids that were bullied; they need to talk to someone other than their best friend about it. They should talk to their parents or whoever. That was the problem with Brendan and Gary because they didn't talk to anyone about being bullied. They just sat there and let it become a spoiled egg.
A book that I can think of that is comparable to this book would be The Outsiders. In The Outsiders, there's a group of kids that don't fit in with the rest of the other kids in the school. Just like in Give a Boy a Gun, the two main characters don't fit in with the school and they constantly get into fights with the jocks. The title says a lot about the book. A big part in the book is when one of the boys buys a gun. While he's in the car with a friend of his, he shoots at signs and other things. I believe that was the breaking point of the story, because from then on he was more and more serious about killing the kids who picked on him.
I would recommend this book to many teenagers who go to high school. I feel like they can connect in some way to the bullying that happens in the

Give a boy a gun

I just got done reading a book that was very interesting and exciting. It is a biography about a school shooting that happened. It goes through there life from middle school all the way to the day it happened. The story is told by every one that was involved with the incident. The title of the book is Give a Boy a Gun and the author is Todd Strassers. The goes through the life of two kids that get picked on so much that they can¿t take it anymore that they snap. I know that most people like to read for enjoyment or whatever, but I feel that this book goes above and beyond that. When he was writing this book he had a purpose like to show you what can happen if someone is pushed to far. The age group that this author is trying to target would be anyone. They age that will enjoy this the most would be mostly high schoolers. One of the things that make this book interesting would be the point of view or views it is told in. The story is told by everyone who was in the event (or knew the boys) that are still alive. So its not like you get just one view you gat the view of everyone, a whole 360 of there life and what had happened. The book was easy to follow because Todd broke it up into grades and what built up to the incident. As far as the accuracy goes, it was a bull¿s eye, this could really happened cause it did and I don¿t want to say it but it happens over and over. Some of the characters that were in the book reminded me of people that I new and if I was in the book I would have to say I would be one of the jocks/athletes (other then them being so mean to the non athletes). When the author was writing this book I think he was trying to get across a message and that message is you should think about you action before you do them and treat everyone with the same respect you give everyone else. There is no category for this book; I feel that it has its own group that it belongs in. The title of the books tells you everything that happens, it show what can happen if you give a boy(s) a gun. If I were to recommend this book I would suggest it to either eighth graders or freshmen in high school. I would have them read it because it shows how rough high school can be on students. As I was reading the book I had many feelings go through me. There was happy, sad, confusing, and pretty much every other feeling. And at the end they all hit me at once. It was fricken crazy!! The ending of the book was incredible. The detail about what was happening was amazing. ¿They were yelling at us to get away from the door. That the doors were booby-trapped. They herded us all into the center of the gym and told us to lie facedown¿ (Strasser 126). It made me feel like I was really there, lying on my stomach with the rest of the students and staff. I think it was because everyone that was involved was telling so you got to know everything that was going on from every point of view. If I had to rate this book and it was out of 5 stars I would have to give this book a 4. I would give it a 4 cause the way it was written and how you got all parts of the story and nothing was left out.

give a boy a gun review

¿For as long as they can remember, Brendan and Gary have been mercilessly teased and harassed by the jocks who rule Middletown High. But not anymore. Stealing a small arsenal of guns from a neighbor, they take their classmates hostage at a school dance. In panic of this desperate situation, it soon becomes clear that only one thing matters to Brendan and Gary: revenge.¿ (Back of cover/blurb). The book I am reviewing is Give a Boy a Gun by Todd Strasser. I believe the purpose the author wrote this is to educate the people of America that it is so easy for youths to acquire weapons and hold fellow students hostage, Also to prevent this phenomenon from happening. The intended audience for this book is guided at young adults. This group is the most affected by a tragedy of this sort and this group can effectively relate to this. There is not a specific narrator for this story. It is all the people that were affected by Brendan and Gary when they held hostage their fellow students at a school dance, everybody has a different viewpoint and everyone was affected differently. This also presents a different format by the form of interviews conducted on the people involved. I would not be able to connect with any characters with the story because I am not bullied daily or have been involved in a tragedy of that sort. I believe that the author did get his point across and I really noticed how bad people were affected by a tragedy of that significance. I really understand how the fictional characters in this book and now I have a better understanding of the victims of the columbine high school shooting. I was actually surprised about some of the newspaper/magazine quotes on the bottom of every other page or so. This relates perfectly to the movie Zero Day. It is based on two boys who were bullied to the point of insanity and also took it out by conducting a shooting at their school and committed suicide afterwards. The significance of the title is very simple. If you give a boy a gun the circumstances may be enormous if this boy is severely bullied at school or has other social or mental problems. I would recommend this to anybody who wants to read a definitely completely different book and wants a viewpoint from several people in their own words and not just one central viewpoint in just one form of vocabulary. The time period and the accuracy of the story is perfect. Amazingly there are still shootings that occur all over the nation and actually schools are starting to lock down on security. Every part of this story is accurate and plausible to contemporary life. One thing I found questionable is when one of the boys attempted to shoot a school employee by the name of Beth Bender. She felt the bullet whiz by her head and stated ¿the force of the blast knocked me down¿¿ (131). with my knowledge of firearms, he would of felt the muzzle flash of the weapon. The muzzle flash is a result of the bullet finally escaping the barrel and leaving behind it the explosive power of remnants of it collecting around the muzzle of the weapon in a mushroom shape. She would of felt the burn from the flash if close to her face and would definitely not blown her down in an extreme force. She might have fallen in shock of the projectile not hitting her. But the same thing presents itself in movies. This book is applying to the ¿Hollywood Effect¿ for better emotional effect. But actually this is the only untrue detail I encountered. I found the book very engaging and i