I'd read another book by this author, depending on what it was about. I give this book 4 stars, and I'd recommend it to kid 11 or 12 and up, depending on the kid. There was a court scene near the end that was kind of boring, it was just court talk and I couldn't really focus on it, I kind of just skipped through it. Later Sammy said no one can boss him around. My favorite scene was one where they're skating and then a security guard says, 'You can't skate here.' Ian said they'd leave but Sammy kept skating and the security guard said, 'I said you can't skate here!' Ian was trying to stop Sammy but he kicked the security guard's shin and they both ran away. Sammy's in 4th grade, and in parts of the book he's trying to be bigger and cooler than he really is, but then there are lots of parts where you can tell he's still just a little kid, like he'll whine, 'I'm hungry!' where Ian's more grown up, like, 'We need some food.' The people around her were on drugs and were pretty mean, which was kind of confusing to me.

It seemed like he cares about his brother more than I probably would, although maybe if my mom did drugs it'd be different because it said his mom wasn't there most of the time so he probably had to look out for him. After Ian and Sammy ran away there wasn't really any skating, but by then I already knew it was a book I was going to read.īasically the only things that matter to Ian are skateboarding and his little brother Sammy, and he's always looking out for his little brother. There was plenty of skating in the beginning and that got me hooked into the story. I wanted to read this book because it had skateboarding in it and I like skateboarding. The end result is the following: Guest review by Ben

Since he read the book most recently, I asked Ben to write the review with me. I read Skate a while back and recently passed it along to my 11 1/2 year old son, Ben, who has only recently started branching out from a pretty steady diet of fantasy to more realistic fiction. And when his temper finally blows–he actually takes a swing at Coach Florence and knocks him cold–Ian knows he’s got to grab Sammy and skate. But at Morrison High, Ian is getting the distinct, chilling feeling that the administration wants him and his board and his punked hair gone. They get by, finding just enough to eat and plenty of time to skateboard. He’s been raising Sammy practically on his own ever since their mom disappeared again on one of her binges. There’s not much keeping Ian McDermott in Spokane, but at least it’s home.

Skate by michael harmon