JUNGLE DOGS

A tough Hawaiian neighborhood is the unlikely setting for a 12-year-old boy’s conquering of his fears in this exciting and heartwarming novel from Salisbury (Shark Bait, 1997, etc.). Boy Regis is a smart and likable kid who wishes his older brother, Damon, would quit gang life, as well as stop fighting his battles for him. But Damon punches out Gabriel, whose older brother, Crowboy, then beats up Damon in return, cutting him with a knife. Life is already hard enough for Boy’s family, living in a house without screens on the windows, and relying on the income from Boy’s paper route for groceries. With everything stacked against the members of Boy’s family, their devotion to one another leads to their salvation: Boy’s father rescues him and Damon from a beating, and Boy reaches an understanding with his nemesis, Gabriel. Boy learns how to deal with the barking dogs—or anxieties—in his life, and to face them head on, with an open heart and hand. Salisbury offers readers a rare glimpse of a neighborhood most would never stumble across, but the family’s concerns are universal, and the emotional strings are never pulled too tight. (Fiction. 12-14)