OSTRICH BOYS

Three 15-year-old English boys use the distraction of a road trip to avoid dealing with their best friend’s suicide. Tough Sim, anxious Kenny and narrator Blake decide to take an impromptu trip to Ross, Scotland, with the stolen ashes of their mate (named Ross, of course), who recently died in a bicycle accident. On their way they lose money and bus tickets, go bungee jumping and race motorbikes, bicker and fall in love—all while trying to ignore the fact that Ross’s death may have been intentional. Gray’s characters strut, preen, pose and fret in a way that will instantly be recognized by any teenage boy, past or present. His text is full of both tender teenage rage and ribald bon mots: “ ‘So you should die when you’re on holiday or something?’...‘Yeah, or after you’ve just got a good look at Ross’s sister’s tits in the shower.’ ” Display this attitudinal British import between Don Calame’s gleefully gross Swim the Fly (2009) and Melvin Burgess’s Doing It (2003). (Fiction. 13 & up)