THE LATENT POWERS OF DYLAN FONTAINE

Following his arrest for shoplifting, 15-year-old Dylan Fontaine figures out jail is not for him. Once released, the New York City teen embarks on an adolescent journey of self-discovery. He juggles a laundry list of problems: His OB-GYN father works on call 24/7, his mother left to cohabitate with an artist friend and his older brother Randy smokes a prodigious amount of weed while trying to break out his band, the Dead Musicians Society. Dylan becomes the anchor to the chaos and his patience wears thin. The earnest young man is thrilled by a spike in romantic possibilities when crush Angie wants to use Dylan as the subject for her film documentary and sexy Chloe pays attention to him. Unfortunately, today’s readers will feel detachment from musical name-dropping that mentions only oldies such as Hendrix, Springsteen and Nirvana. Nevertheless, Lurie has created a well-paced story about a teen guy who shoulders responsibility while becoming his own person. (Fiction. YA)