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Numbers
#1 Calgary Herald Bestseller
Just when Andy starts to feel like he finally belongs, can he stand up to the person he trusted the most?

Andy Crockett doesn’t fit in at his new school — not with the goths, not with the jocks, and certainly not with the brains. Not even, really, with The Six, a group of misfits who hang out with each other mostly because they can’t stand hanging out with anyone else.

But maybe Andy’s luck is changing … and all because he is in Mr. Reztlaff’s grade ten social class — Mr. Retzlaff, the coolest teacher; in fact, the coolest thing about Parkerville Comprehensive. Social is awesome from day one. It’s the class that looks at World War II, Hitler, and the Holocaust. It’s the class Andy wants to ace — and make Mr. Retzlaff proud.

But eventually Andy also begins to understand that acing the class might just have a greater cost than he’s willing to pay. And when it turns out that Mr. Retzlaff might not be so cool after all, Andy is facing the most difficult decision of his life.
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Numbers
#1 Calgary Herald Bestseller
Just when Andy starts to feel like he finally belongs, can he stand up to the person he trusted the most?

Andy Crockett doesn’t fit in at his new school — not with the goths, not with the jocks, and certainly not with the brains. Not even, really, with The Six, a group of misfits who hang out with each other mostly because they can’t stand hanging out with anyone else.

But maybe Andy’s luck is changing … and all because he is in Mr. Reztlaff’s grade ten social class — Mr. Retzlaff, the coolest teacher; in fact, the coolest thing about Parkerville Comprehensive. Social is awesome from day one. It’s the class that looks at World War II, Hitler, and the Holocaust. It’s the class Andy wants to ace — and make Mr. Retzlaff proud.

But eventually Andy also begins to understand that acing the class might just have a greater cost than he’s willing to pay. And when it turns out that Mr. Retzlaff might not be so cool after all, Andy is facing the most difficult decision of his life.
12.99 In Stock
Numbers

Numbers

by David A. Poulsen
Numbers
Add to Wishlist
Numbers

Numbers

by David A. Poulsen

Overview

#1 Calgary Herald Bestseller
Just when Andy starts to feel like he finally belongs, can he stand up to the person he trusted the most?

Andy Crockett doesn’t fit in at his new school — not with the goths, not with the jocks, and certainly not with the brains. Not even, really, with The Six, a group of misfits who hang out with each other mostly because they can’t stand hanging out with anyone else.

But maybe Andy’s luck is changing … and all because he is in Mr. Reztlaff’s grade ten social class — Mr. Retzlaff, the coolest teacher; in fact, the coolest thing about Parkerville Comprehensive. Social is awesome from day one. It’s the class that looks at World War II, Hitler, and the Holocaust. It’s the class Andy wants to ace — and make Mr. Retzlaff proud.

But eventually Andy also begins to understand that acing the class might just have a greater cost than he’s willing to pay. And when it turns out that Mr. Retzlaff might not be so cool after all, Andy is facing the most difficult decision of his life.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781459732483
Publisher: Dundurn Press
Publication date: 10/20/2015
Edition description: 2nd ed.
Pages: 200
Product dimensions: 5.00(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range: 12 - 15 Years

About the Author

David A. Poulsen has been a broadcaster, teacher, football coach, and actor who spends eighty to one hundred days each year as a visiting author in schools across Canada. He is the author of more than twenty books, including Old Man, which was short-listed for the Forest of Reading White Pine award, and Numbers which won the Sakura Medal in Japan. He lives in the foothills west of Claresholm, Alberta.

Read an Excerpt

One year ago, almost to the day …

Forty-five seconds left.

Sweat, energy, and thinking: The three ingredients for a wrestler’s success. Our coach, Mr. Findlay, must have said that maybe fifty times a practice. “Sweat, energy, and thinking, Crockett,” he’d yell. “Give me those three things, I’ll give you a win.”

I looked at the other kid and I could see it in his eyes. I had him. We both knew it. Sweat, energy, and thinking. I wondered what my opponent’s coach said to him. What if he said the same thing as Mr. Findlay? What if he said, “Give me those three things and I'll give you a win.” One of those coaches would be lying.

Forty seconds. I was ahead on points. All I had to do was stay out of trouble and it was mine. He was mine. I moved in on him. I knew I didn’t have to — I already had it in the bag — but the guy was done. I could see that. There was another point or two there for the taking, and I decided to take them.

Thinking, Crockett … thinking, Crockett … thinking, Crockett.

Then it happened. I still don’t know how. I swear to this day the kid wasn’t that good. I went in low for a single-leg takedown. I’d done it so many times. It had worked so many times. It had worked in this match. I’d taken him down with that move in the first minute and it was there again, I was sure of it. I go in low, wrap that leg, bring it up, he goes down, and I’ve got him.

It couldn’t fail.

Could not fail.

But it did. The guy made a countermove. I’m not sure exactly what he did.

But he pinned me and that was that.

***

Sometimes I think it might have been different if I’d won that semifinal match at regionals. I might have been noticed by kids who weren’t in The Six. Maybe even liked by a few. You can’t be sure about something like that, but it always seems like the guys who are good at sports and who actually win are really popular.

But maybe I’m imagining the whole thing. I mean, maybe most of the school would have ignored me no matter what happened in that match. And maybe Mr. Retzlaff would’ve started the unit on the Holocaust the very next Monday even if I had won.

And even if the kid who beat me hadn’t been named Julius Epstein.

Which is a Jewish name. At least the Epstein part. I don’t know about Julius. The only other Julius I've heard about got stabbed by a bunch of pissed off Romans in a Shakespeare play. I think there might be a few athletes named Julius, but I’m not even sure about that.

All I know is that Julius Epstein beat me. In the regionals. And my life changed after that day.

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