Moondog

My wife and I both teach HS English and I am always looking for good young adult books to keep in my classroom or to add to my curriculum. Last Christmas, she gave me a collection of about 16-18 YA books from various authors. She'd done some searching on the internet for books related to some of the ones I've liked best and these books were the result. It was an excellent gift. I'm still working through them, though, as teaching is an 18 hour/7 day a week job for 9 and 1/2 months. It's only now that I have time to read and to organize my book shelves.

I've recently begun Moondog by someone Garfield. It's marketed as "Teen Mystery." I've read about 120 pages of it and it has yet to show me at all how it is related to teens. I like the story quite a bit. The writing reminds me of Stephen King, but a bit more reader friendly (not as many details). Garfield gives a great deal of info on all of his characters and on the town in general. It's a good read, but I can't see why the publisher would market to teens. The book starts out with narrator Joe Acton talking about his incarceration for selling drugs. Fine. But he hasn't been much reformed by the time the story begins. Also, the details Garfield uses about some of the characters really lead me to believe that he was planning to market the book as an adult book. Details about Erik Gunn's interest in Patsy whats-her-name and how his marriage is failing and how he drinks on the job...all interesting to me as an adult, but I'm not so sure a 14-17 year old would give a damn.

I wonder more about the book since it's the first in a trilogy. An odd trilogy for young adults. I'm fine with the killings and the implication that it's been done by werewolves; I just don't see teens reading this book.