Free Simon Says by Elaine Marie Alphin Page B

street life in San Francisco with his homeless father and younger brother to a
private high school in Los Angeles. Brandt sees America as an environment tailored to yes-men, and has Alan drag his family to the top by striving to please everyone around him and by teaching his out-of-luck father and his admiring brother to do the same. It's a precarious road to success, threatening to veer off into disaster at any turn.
    As the Travis family climbs," we don't know whether to cheer Alan on or to deplore his tactics, but he so resembles that part of ourselves that we hate to acknowledge that we cannot ignore him. Brandt flings Travis at us with an analytical accuracy that will shake the reader and keep him in knots long after he turns the final page.
    Although this novel is marred by youthful overexuberance, Graeme Brandt is more than a precocious teenager. He is well on his way to shouldering the responsibility of the novelist's art to define us for ourselves. Few authors have effectively confronted this monumental task since William Faulkner captured the Southern mind so clearly—and fewer still have ever done it deliberately for young people.
    That's not to say that adults won't be mesmerized by this novel Read it to discuss with your teenagers, because they'll be talking about Alan Travis—and about Graeme Brandt Whether your reaction is fury or resentment at helpless recognition, remember that this is the America you live in. Watch Brandt to see what he writes next; perhaps he can tell us where we're going.
    February 7 (Sophomore Year)

    Mr. Adler said that the
Times
doesn't review many books for kids and teens, so it's a big deal that they gave the book such a great review. I guess it's great, even though Mr. Pierce doesn't seem to like what I had to say much-he likes the book more than Tyler Murdoch did here at Whitman, though! The review in
Ventures
was pretty bad-a prophet in his own land, I guess. But the book got good reviews in
Publishers Weekly
and
School Library Journal,
and a bunch of other magazines I've never heard of. And it's in the book fair, which means they'll take it right into the schools so kids can buy it easier.
    The agent has taken a collection of my short stories to see if he can sell it to the same publisher, or maybe to a different one. And
Ventures
did take the essay. It's like I can't put a wrong word on paper, even if I try.
    My parents are thrilled about the book's success, though my dad had to warn me it might not last I don't know about that Even though I'm not working on a new novel yet, I'm full of ideas for stories, and maybe something will grow to book size. I'm not sure I knew this was going to be a book when I started it, though I was hoping, certainly.
    But right now I'm just enjoying the fuss. Even seniors at Whitman recognize me and talk to me around the campus! Not that most of them have read the book, of course. But some of them have, and others have read the reviews, and nearly everyone has heard about it They all have their own impressions of me-and all the impressions are different I think that's interesting.

4

    "It's for you," Adrian calls out, waving the phone receiver in my direction. "Or are you asleep there?"
    Lying on my bed and staring at the ceiling is far from sleep. I can see patterns in the textured plaster; I can make colors on the white backdrop. It's better than thinking.
    I roll off the bed and take the phone.
    "Charles?" It's my father.
    "Charlie? Are you all right?" And my mother.
    "Hi. I'm fine. All settled in."
    My mother asks, "You haven't forgotten your promise, have you?"
    I had to work at getting them to let me come to Whitman, even with the scholarship. My mother was horrified that I was still so obsessed with painting. I finally made a deal with them—I'd get decent grades in the academic courses I took, and I'd take all the tests, and next year I'd fill out applications for colleges, and once I graduated I'd go to college and study for a