Fourteen-year-old John creates alternative realities in his mind as he tries to deal with his mother's abusive boyfriend, his crush on a beautiful, but shallow classmate and other problems at school.

This is the best book I have read in a while and it peaked my interest from beginning to end. What I found to be most original about this book is John's outlook on everything. An example of this uniqueness is: "my tuba is not a tuba, because it has never produced a musical sound. It is actually a giant frog pretending to be a tuba." I heard odd remarks like this through the entire book and I couldn't put it down. While it is very entertaining, it is also very sad. John's stepfather is an abusive alcoholic and it is kept between the two of them, effecting John's social life and every other aspect of his life. I would recommend this book to anyone. It's amazing and it will throw you from being happy, to sad, to laughter and back again. Written by Julie, 9th grader