The Gospel According to Larry (Larry Series #1)

The Gospel According to Larry (Larry Series #1)

by Janet Tashjian
The Gospel According to Larry (Larry Series #1)

The Gospel According to Larry (Larry Series #1)

by Janet Tashjian

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Overview

After creating a controversial and hugely popular website, teenager Josh Swensen becomes trapped inside his brilliant creation and must find a way to remain anonymous.

I am lying on my bed doing my homework in Greek and Latin roots for Advanced English. 'Ped' for foot, 'homo' for man, 'nym' for name. I sit with the dictionary in front of me, coming up with as many words as I can to complete the assignment. Pedestrian, homicide, pseudonym . . . I have more than thirty of them. By accident -- that's always how these life-changing things happen -- I connect two halves that don't seem like a word until I look it up. 'Pseudo', false; and 'cide,' to kill = pseudocide. To pretend to kill (yourself).

I stare at the word for a good long time. Homicide, suicide, genocide: these are words you can find in the newspaper every day. But pseudocide . . . now here was something different. My mind wanders from my homework to the blue cotton threads of my bedspread. Pseudocide. A way to start again as someone completely new, a way to burn the old self and try on a new one.

Josh Swensen isn't your average teenager - when he observes America, he sees a powerhouse of consumerism and waste. He's even tried to do something about it, with his start-up controversial website. But when Josh rises to messiah status of the internet world, he discovers that greed and superficiality are not easily escaped. Trapped inside his own creation, Josh feels his only way out is to stage his death and be free of his internet alter-ego, "Larry." But this plan comes with danger, and soon Josh finds himself cut off from the world, with no one to turn to for help. In this suspenseful young adult novel, Janet Tashjian has written a probing tour-de-force.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781429956673
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Publication date: 04/01/2011
Series: Janet Tashjian's Larry Series , #1
Sold by: Macmillan
Format: eBook
Pages: 240
Lexile: 800L (what's this?)
File size: 535 KB
Age Range: 12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Janet Tashjian has been hailed in reviews as having her finger on the adolescent pulse. She is the author of Multiple Choice; Marty Frye, Private Eye; and Tru Confessions, which was named a New York Public Library Best Book for Teenagers and a Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Book. Ms. Tashjian lives in Needham, Massachusetts, with her family.


Janet Tashjian is a middle-grade and young adult novelist who’s been writing books for children for over two decades. Her first novel Tru Confessions was made into a critically acclaimed Disney TV movie starring Clara Bryant and Shia LaBeouf. The Gospel According to Larry series is a cult favorite and Fault Line is taught in many middle and high schools. Her bestselling My Life As a Book series is illustrated by her son, Jake. They also collaborated on the Einstein the Class Hamster series.

Janet collaborated with fellow Macmillan author Laurie Keller on the chapter book series Marty Frye, Private Eye. Janet currently lives in Los Angeles and made her new home city the setting of the Sticker Girl series, which details the adventures of Martina who overcomes being shy with the help of her magical stickers that come to life.

Read an Excerpt


The Gospel According to Larry
The Gospel According to Larry-- in my own words by Josh Swensen"I haven't enjoyed a rant this much since Thoreau,"1 Beth said. "We need people stirring up the way we think about things."My best friend, Beth, was trying to talk me into forming a Larry study group with her. His Web site--www.thegospelaccordingtolarry.com--received hundreds of hits a day, mostly from teens and college students. No one knew Larry's identity, and that conjecture alone was the source of several companion Web sites. Many kids at school were fans, but Beth was rabid."Josh, I know neither one of us has ever joined a club in our life," she said. "But that's precisely why we should."I tried to listen to the details of her story, I really did, but there is somethingabout Beth's mouth that gets in the way of paying attention to its contents.2 She often wore a certain brown lipstick and outlined the edges of her lips with this pencil she carried in her bag. Every time she talked, it was like this pale chocolate snowcone staring up at me, waiting to be eaten. I've been in love with her since sixth grade, but she didn't have a clue."I'll help you with the club," I said. "But just so the two of us can bag all the meetings and laugh at the other people who show up."She wasn't amused. "This isn't a joke. Someone is finally talking about the things I've been saying all along, and I think it's important to help spread the word. Are you in or are you out?""Of course I'm in. I can't let you do this on your own. Next thing I know you'll be running for prom queen or something."She punched me in the arm, her usual form of affection. "Hey, why don't you help me at the store this afternoon? We're having a run on shovels."Beth's father's hardware store had been our work/tree house/summer camp since grammar school. Sorting the nuts and bolts, counting the different lightbulbs, shoveling the woodchips into wheelbarrows had never seemed like a job to either of us. The small store prided itself on carrying everything a homeowner could need, but for a loner like me it was a nonthreatening way to be a part of the community without too much social pressure. I told Beth I'd meet her there at four.For a brief moment I pretended we were a couple, not snowbound outside Boston, but romping through the Caribbean surf--tan and in love. My fantasy shattered, however, when she waved goodbye and headed across the cafeteria to Todd Terrific--a new jock she was obsessed with. Can someone please explain to me how this preoccupation with dopey athletes happens even to headstrong young women who work in hardware stores and score 1350s on their SATs? Beth, what are you doing to me? Life was cruel and unfair--what did this Larry guy have to say about that?The rest of school went by like the movie Groundhog Day, where Bill Murray wakes up and every day is the same, down to the last boringdetails. Even when something new did happen--fire drill, substitute teacher--it was still just a giant yawn in the storyline. To keep myself amused during study hall, I invented a new alphabet based on the sense of smell.3At home that night, I booted up my laptop and logged on. I checked my e-mail, then the small portfolio of stocks my mother left me when she died. I made one last online stop: to Larry. I wondered if Beth was doing the same thing at the same time--an unrequited cyberdate.The Larry logo filled the screen--a peace sign with a dove, a floppy disk, a planet, and a plug inside each of its four sections. I scrolled down through several photographs to comments people had written that day: puljohn posted a new link to Adbusters. Toejam ranted about Larry's last sermon, calling it brilliantly flawed. I was in the middle of reading his argument when Peter knocked quickly, then stuck his head in my room."Want some leftover pizza?"My stepfather was the ultimate businessman; even in his terrycloth robe and slippers with the squashed heels, he could command his advertising consulting firm from the brink of failure to unbridled success. He had the whole sales thing down--the firm handshake, the warm smile, the good listening. It was the real Peter, not put on, like lots of other guys at his company.He looked over my shoulder and checked out the screen."I've heard about this Larry," he said. "Some guy bashing our culture online. Anonymous coward.""Some people think it's one of the big televangelists trying to reach the teen market. Or maybe it's a bored housewife in the suburbs looking for something to do."Peter shook his head. "Probably some hacker trying to make a name for himself.""I'll add that to the list of hypotheses," I said."You do that." He handed me a slice of pizza on a paper towel. "Dinner at Katherine's tomorrow. That okay with you?""Sure. Great." Katherine was my stepfather's girlfriend who had been putting on the full-court press to be the next Mrs. Swensen. Ididn't have the nerve to tell Peter I found her as interesting as a bag of rice.Peter closed the door and headed downstairs to his office. I browsed the Larry archives, then printed out the latest sermon to prepare for Beth tomorrow.SERMON #93Slip on your Gap jeans, your Nike T-shirt, your Reeboks--or maybe even your Cons if you think that makes you cool and ironic in a Kurt Cobain kind of way. Grab your Adidas backpack, ride to school on your Razor, drink your Poland Spring, eat your PowerBar, write a paper on your iMac, slip on your Ralph Lauren windbreaker. Buy the latest CD from Tower, check the caller ID to see who's on the phone, eat your Doritos, drink your Coke. Stare at the TV till you're stupefied.Is there any time of the day when we're not being used and abused by the advertising companies? Can we have an inch of free space, do you mind? Someambitious kids rent their head space--the outside, not the inside (although the inside space is certainly emptier)--to local companies by shaving ads into their hair for all their friends to see. It's just a matter of time before corporations figure out a way to sell you stuff while you're sleeping. Maybe some kind of vitamin that releases visual and sonic enzymes that run like a ticker tape through your dreams--ALL THE LATEST RELEASES NOW AT BLOCKBUSTER ... CHEESIER NACHOS AT CHILI'S ... BY THE WAY, YOU'RE SNORING ... .Am I the only one who sees the irony of sitting in lit class reading 1984, having a discussion of Big Brother watching out for us like it's some time way in the future? Some science fiction nightmare that's never really going to happen? Hel-lo? Our lives couldn't be more dictated by the corporations if they gave our schools A/V equipment in exchange for making us watch commercials in class.Oh yeah, they do that already.Never mind.Good thing Peter hadn't hung around for that one. By two A.M., I had fourteen pages of notes for the new Larry club.4 When I added up all the things I'd done for Beth over the years, I figured it was more effort than they put into developing the last space shuttle.And completely and totally worth it.Copyright © 2001 by Janet Tashjian

Reading Group Guide

Josh Swensen is not your average 17-year-old. At the age of two, he was figuring out algebraic equations with colored magnetic numbers. He is a prodigy who only wants to make the world a better place. Josh’s wish comes true when his virtual alter ego, Larry, becomes a huge media sensation. Larry has his own Web site where he posts sermons on anti-consumerism and has a large following of adults and teens. Meanwhile, Larry’s identity is a mystery to everyone. While it seems as if the whole world is trying to figure out Larry’s true identity, Josh feels trapped inside his own creation. What will happen to the world, and to Larry, if he is exposed?

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