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    Rat
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    Ebook67 pages56 minutes

    Rat

    By Lesley Choyce

    3/5

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    About this ebook

    Colin is tired of school bullies and other students' refusal to speak up or "rat" on the real troublemakers. When Colin does speak out against a couple of school thugs, they post an embarrassing photo of him on a social networking website. Colin makes some new enemies in the process but also a few new allies, including the VP, Mr. Miller. One of Colin's new unwanted allies, though, is Jerome, who is selling weapons to kids at school for "self defense." Colin threatens to turn Jerome in but backs off, tired of his growing reputation as the school rat.

    When Jerome is shot and killed, Colin regrets not speaking up earlier. Jerome's killer is now known but has not been located by the police. When the police show up, Colin tells them what he knows, and while he realizes that he has some enemies, he also has some real admirers as well.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOrca Book Publishers
    Release dateOct 1, 2012
    ISBN9781459803039
    Rat
    Author

    Lesley Choyce

    Lesley Choyce is an award-winning author of more than 100 books of literary fiction, short stories, poetry, creative nonfiction, young adult novels and several books in the Orca Soundings line. His works have been shortlisted for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, the White Pine Award and the Governor General’s Literary Award, among others. Lesley lives in Nova Scotia.

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    • 4/5
      School pisses Colin off; so do his teachers who view him as a troublemaker. But what really pisses him off are the bullies who get away with it because no one wants to break the code of silence that the bullies rely on. When Colin interrupts Liam and Craig picking on an old man during lunch break, the vice principal catches the tail end where the old man yells at Colin and he gets in trouble for it. He also winds up on Liam and Craig’s hit list and a photoshopped, nude photo of Colin winds up on GoofFace. Colin could handle that because the body wasn’t even his and anyone would see that. But when pictures of his female friends begin appearing and Emily, a fellow outcast, tells him that she thinks Liam and Craig did it to retaliate for the girls turning them down, Colin feels he has to do something about it and considers defying the unwritten social rules of no snitching. The unwritten code is so pervasive in the school that even the vice principal accuses him of ratting when he comes to tell him what is happening. This book for reluctant readers provides a realistic portrayal of timely topics including cyberbullying, sexual harassment, and school violence.
    • 2/5
      Lesley Choyce’s urban tale Rat has all the makings of a story that boys who consider themselves to be misunderstood might cherise. Rat’s main character, Colin, is a secretly smart and artistic kid that has been labeled as a “troublemaker” by adults in authority that is just out to get him; the kind of lone wolf that would bother saving an old man from two bullies but somehow gets blamed for the man’s harassment. Choyce goes to great lengths to make sure the reader is utterly sure of Colin’s badassdom; he smokes occasionally, he claims he “more or less raised” himself, and he has a thing for ferocious rats, whom he adopts as a sort of spirit animal. Yet he is also a martyr, out to find justice for girls whose faces have been photoshopped onto nude bodies and subsequently circulated around the school, and he does not care what kind of enemies he makes along the way. (Colin is similarly intimidated and photoshopped, but it never bothers him because he is a badass, remember?)Rat is clunky at best, and its characters feel half-formed. The portrayal of Colin’s closest friend, Emily, a dreadlocked, activist, hippy-type, is often contradictory, where one minute she is a damsel in distress begging for Colin’s help and the next she is angry at him for helping her. However, any story about social media bullying and school violence is timely and worthwhile for teenage readers, no matter how skillfully that story is told.

    Book preview

    Rat - Lesley Choyce

    Rat

    Lesley Choyce

    ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

    Copyright © 2012 Lesley Choyce

    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced

    or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including

    photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now

    known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.

    Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

    Choyce, Lesley, 1951-

    Rat [electronic resource] / Lesley Choyce.

    (Orca soundings)

    Electronic monograph.

    Issued also in print format.

    ISBN 978-1-4598-0302-2 (PDF).--ISBN 978-1-4598-0303-9 (EPUB)

    I. Title. II. Series: Orca soundings (Online)

    PS8555.H668R38  2012          jC813'.54          C2012-902574-7

    First published in the United States, 2012

    Library of Congress Control Number: 2012938207

    Summary: Tired of bullies at school, Colin decides to take a stand. Branded

    a rat, he finds that standing up for what you believe in can be empowering.

    Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing

    programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada

    through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts,

    and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council

    and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

    Cover photography by Dreamstime.com

    www.orcabook.com

    15    14    13    12    •    4    3    2    1

    Contents

    Chapter One

    Chapter Two

    Chapter Three

    Chapter Four

    Chapter Five

    Chapter Six

    Chapter Seven

    Chapter Eight

    Chapter Nine

    Chapter Ten

    Chapter Eleven

    Chapter Twelve

    Chapter Thirteen

    Chapter Fourteen

    Chapter Fifteen

    Chapter Sixteen

    Chapter One

    It’s not like I’ve assigned myself the job of protector of the weak or anything. I just get tired of creeps at school harassing people who don’t deserve it. I mean, a lot of things really piss me off. School in general pisses me off. And that includes the teachers. Most of them see me as a troublemaker, and I wouldn’t want to have it any other way.

    But there are some kids at school who are hard at work practicing to be the true scum of the earth. You know the type I’m talking about. If you’re not the one being worked over in one way or another by these dorks, then you just turn the other way. We all know the drill. Don’t get involved. Don’t rat on anyone.

    I just don’t think it should work that way. Funny thing is, though, whenever I try to bring a little honesty into this crazy, screwed-up world, I’m the one who gets his ass kicked in one form or another.

    Take this for example.

    During lunchtime awhile back, I was walking back to school after eating a not-so-great greasy hamburger and stale French fries. I was reminding myself that my friend Emily was right. I should give up that crap and become a vegetarian. I was almost back to school and anxious to get on with what looked to be a monumentally boring afternoon. That’s when I saw Liam and Craig harassing some old geezer carrying a couple of bags of groceries. The old guy was kind of bent over and walking funny. I don’t know why I even noticed. I was across the street, and there was a lot of traffic, but it was like I had radar or something.

    So I crossed over right away, ignoring the cars honking at me and the one idiot who had to screech to a halt so he didn’t kill me. He shot me the finger, and I thumped smartly on the hood of his Lexus.

    I felt a knot in my stomach (it could have been the greasy burger) as I walked up to Liam and Craig. I heard Liam shouting at the old guy, C’mon, I’m sure you have some spare cash you can lend us. You look like you have plenty. You had to be there to hear the real nastiness in the way he said this.

    The old guy just shook his head and tried to keep walking. But just then, Craig walked forward and put himself right in the way. The old man tried to walk around, but Craig had him covered again.

    Craig, you stupid piece of garbage, I shouted. Leave him alone!

    Craig looked at me like I had punched him in the face.

    Leave him alone, I said again.

    Liam gave me the once-over too, but then turned back to Mr. Groceries and said, Maybe we can just make do with something in the bag. You got anything good in there? Liam had his hand on the cloth grocery bag and was trying to reach inside. The old man was trying to pull away, and he

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