Boy Toy by Barry Lyga

Title: Boy Toy

Author: Barry Lyga

Publish Date: January 2009

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Pages: 416pp

ISBN: 0547076347

Classification: Fiction

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Age Range: 14 and up

Price: $16.95

Amazon: $8.99

Annotation: Josh Mendel’s life was changed forever when he was twelve years old with his involvement with his drop-dead gorgeous history teacher, Mrs. Evelyn Sherman. Now, eighteen, and about to graduate, Josh is faced with his haunting past. 

Summary: When Josh Mendel was twelve years old, he became sexually involved with his high school history teacher Mrs. Evelyn Sherman.  During this affair, Josh becomes addicted to the sexual exploration.  He experiences feelings of guilt, but those feelings wash over with the pleasure given to him by Mrs. Sherman.  Everything comes to a dramatic end when a game of spin the bottle happens between Josh and one of his long time baseball friends Rachael.  Written back and forth between Josh's flashbacks from five years ago and the present, Boy Toy is a heartbreaking story of a young man trying to heal his past demons and move on into adulthood with honor and ease. 

Evaluation: A powerful story that looks inside the psychological affects of sexual abuse between a student and a teacher.  Even with this serious subject matter, Lyga captures the lives of high school students with humor and wisdom.  This book definitely kept me interested and I appreciated Josh re-telling the actual affair/abuse between him and his history teacher Mrs. Sherman.   Overall, a powerful

Bibliotherapeutic Usefulness:

• Facing your dramatic past.
• Having sexual experiences with an older, authoritative person. 

Reason this book was chosen: First off, I am a fan of Barry Lyga—I read Fanboy and the seqel GothGirl and loved his witty writing style.  Second, I became extremely interested in other books by Lyga and Boy Toy has an interesting storyline of sexual  abuse between a young boy (Josh) and his teacher. The story unfolds pretty rapidly with Josh’s flashbacks of what happened and the after affects of that event.  Lyga writes a powerful novel and does not hold back from graphic descriptions of Josh’s past.

Similar Titles:

Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande

Memories of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin

Right Behind You by Gail Giles

Author Website: Click HERE 

Awards:
ALA Best Books for Young Adults, 2008
Cybils Award Young Adult Fiction, 2007