Word: hanke
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...novels have succeeded in capturing the essence of adolescence, but the likes of Tom Sawyer and Holden Caulfield are about to welcome the newest member to their ranks—a 13-year-old boy named Hank...
Written by first-time author and longtime educator Arch Montgomery, Hank is the first installment in The Gunpowder Trilogy. It details a summer in the life of the eponymous hero, Hank Collins, growing up in the suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland. Headstrong and precocious, he witnesses the dissolution of his family and faces challenges great and small on his lonely journey to maturity...
Bright as Hank is, his native rebelliousness lands him into trouble at school. His parents pay him little heed, allowing him to roam free. He quits his Little League team and spends his days riding along the paths of the Gunpowder River. Hank finds himself in situations which are exciting and eminently believable, from baseball games to paintball wars and illicit houseparties. He plays with his stepsiblings Jake and Stephie, and later joins some older men in a paintballing expedition that goes suddenly and frighteningly wrong. Throughout it all, he is forced to deal with the complications and hypocrisies...
...Montgomery is no ordinary writer, and Hank is no ordinary book. From start to finish, Montgomery skillfully fashions a narrative that is raw, real and wholly rewarding...
Throughout the novel, he displays a deep and true understanding of modern youngsters and what makes them tick. Most impressive is Montgomery’s convincing use of the first-person; the entire narrative is related through the eyes of Hank. Before the first page is turned, one forgets that a 40-year-old gentleman has authored these words, so genuinely like a boy’s thoughts do they sound. Hank is so authentic that one sometimes feels the need to check for that standard disclaimer reminding us that these characters are only fictitious. Hank bursts from the pages...