Ink Me (Seven Series)

by Richard Scrimger

Overview

Bunny (real name Bernard) doesn't understand why his late grandfather wants him to get a tattoo. Actually, Bunny doesn't understand a lot of things, so it's good that his older brother, Spencer, is happy to explain things to him. But this is a task Bunny is supposed to do on his own, and nobody is more surprised than Bunny when, after he gets tattooed, he is befriended by a kid named Jaden and adopted into Jaden's gang. The gang hangs out at a gym, where Bunny learns to fight, but when it finally dawns on him that the gang is involved in some pretty shady—and dangerous—business, Bunny is torn between his loyalty to his new friends and doing what he knows is right.

Bunny's adventures start in Weerdest Day Ever!, part of The Seven Prequels and continue in The Wolf and Me, part of The Seven Sequels.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459800182
Publisher:	Orca Book Publishers
Publication date:	10/12/2012
Series:	Orca Seven Series , #4
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	761 KB
Age Range:	10 - 17 Years

About the Author

Richard Scrimger is the award-winning author of more than twenty books for children and adults, and has written for television and print media. His fiction has been translated into a dozen languages. Richard teaches creative writing at Humber College in Toronto and travels around telling audiences that stories matter.

Editorial Reviews

"An exciting story [with] a lot of hearty laughs at Bunny's misunderstandings and their consequences."

CM Magazine

"An excellent story that entertained me and made me think, with great characters and a plot that moves...[Scrimger] deserves kudos for a stellar job."

Amy's Marathon of Books blog

"[The] adventures are exciting and readers will be anxious to pick up the next book in the series. Great for middle grade boys who want realistic fiction with action and suspense."

NJ Youth Services

"What I loved about this book was that I could never see where it was going. I mean never. Right up until the end. "

Toronto Public Library Teen Reviews

"Readers will be too engrossed in the upshot of Bunny's honesty and incomprehension to realize that Ink Me exposes the vulnerability of perceptions to misinterpretation...A brilliant story, less about gangs and tattoos than about our relationships with others and the roles misunderstanding and perspective play in securing or destroying the integrity of those connections."

CanLit for Little Canadians blog

"Bunny is a likeable, engaging narrator whose storytelling style is captivating both in its naïveté and in its omissions. In its idiosyncratic rendering of the ambiguities of language, the text reveals many moments of unexpected insight and brilliance...This is a surprisingly rich book, despite its casual presentation...It is clever in its execution and wise in its thematic treatment."

Resource Links

Meet Bunny (short for Bernard) O'Toole--mentally slow, physically strong and fast--the observant, nonjudgmental narrator of this convoluted but enjoyable fable of Toronto gang life recorded in believable, phonetically spelled prose. His grandfather never got around to getting a tattoo while he was alive. He's left a letter asking Bunny to do it for him and he does, though the tattoo's design confuses him. The "15" makes sense--it's his age--but why is there a candle next to it? Is the tattoo why Jaden, whom he rescued from a bully, and his gang befriend him, even though they're black and Bunny's white? Accustomed to teasing and harassment, Bunny finds the gang's close bond exhilarating. Soon, he's hanging out at Jaden's gym, where the manager, Morgan, teaches him boxing. (Bunny's gifts reflect a stereotype, the disability equivalent of the "magical negro" trope.) Bunny enthusiastically joins in their mysterious deal to raise money to keep the gym open. He reacts to what he experiences; his impressions aren't funneled through a prism of fears and assumptions. (Readers won't find the gang so benign.) Loyalty is the currency of their world--something Bunny understands. Most intellectually disabled characters in children's fiction are siblings or pals whose treatment by other characters signals their compassion or otherwise. Bunny's a rare hero--not on anyone's journey but his own. (Fiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews