Bonehead Bootcamp

The Age of Amy #1

by Bruce Edwards

Amy is uprooted from the city she loves to the Midwest--and she's pissed! The 16-year-old blasts her parents for destroying her happiness. But when her verbal attacks turn physical, she is sent away to a boot camp for troubled teens. Expecting Bonehead Bootcamp to be a laid-back country retreat, Amy instead enters a frightening fantasy world where a mutant farm animal manipulates time and space. Together with three other unruly teenagers, she must summon all her courage and ingenuity to get back home.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

178 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2012

About the author

Bruce Edwards writes relevant fiction for young adults. Through fantasy and imagination, his compelling stories promote an optimistic worldview. States the author: "Kids today see a troubled world and simply ask, 'Is this the best you can do?' My books encourage young folks to explore alternatives to the status quo." But Bruce's unconventional approach to storytelling doesn't come at the expense of a fun read. His stories are never short on fun, fantasy, and imagination.

Reviews

[J.A. Dalley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first saw this book listed as a giveaway, and I thought it sounded interesting enough, so I signed up. However, I didn’t win the giveaway, and I was surprised to find that I was disappointed. So I decided to buy it and give it a read.

This story starts out with four rebel teenagers who all have a specific problem that they need to solve with their personality. When they go to Bonehead Bootcamp “a mutant farm animal manipulates time and space” to help them see what their problem is ... but someone else is going to have to help them solve it.

I read it in about three hours. I am a speed reader but it is really short. Also, as an adult reader, I thought that some of the morale issues or lessons that the author was trying to teach were a little to blatant. So this book is definitely intended for a young adult audience. That being said, I still really enjoyed it.

I just have one more thing to add. The author is amazing at describing things. Sometimes I felt that got in the way of the story, but mostly it really enhanced the story and made the world come to life.

I look forward to reading more books by this author. I’d like to see what else he has planned for his reading audience.

[Laurie Franco · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was an excellent story that flowed vey nicely together. Amy is a teenage girl who, like many teenagers, is going through a rough patch with her parents and gets sent off to a boot camp unlike any that I've ever heard of before. While there she meets up with three other "boneheads", one of which she goes to school with and doesn't really get along with. She begins to realize that there are things she needs to changes about herself, and that others have problems too. I don't want to give anything away, but this was a thoroughly enjoyable novel, and I would love to read more books by this author, especially of they are about Amy and the Bonehead Bootcamp! Five stars all the way for a wonderful author!

[Kayla fisher-poling · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book through the giveaway and read it in about an hour though I do read very quickly. This book is intended for the young adult audience and though I am 22, I did still enjoy the book and the ideas being portrayed.

This book was definitely different than other young adult books I have read in the past but I really enjoyed the details given, as this book requires an imagination.

I believe this would be a fantastic book for a young adult struggling with various things in life, as it will help them see from a different perspective.


*note a typo on page 82 "why can't you keep up us?" missing the word with

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book as part of the Goodreads giveaways.

I was ready to close the book and not finish it about half way through because I didn't understand where it was going or what the point was...kept reading and started looking at the book as a fable or fairie tale instead of a novel and that different viewpoint changed my whole perception.

Really enjoyed the ending and the lessons learned. I think Bruce Edwards has a future, he needs to spend more time writing and gettings his chops but the raw talent is there and I look forward to reading more from him.

[Tabetha Markel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recieved The Age of Amy: Bonehead Bootcamp free from Goodreads Giveaways. I liked this book. It is something that I will let my daughter read in a few years. A good book about morals and how things should be looked at from all points of view. Really enjoyed this!

[Jamie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book wasn't great. I read this because the description caught my attention. I"ll admit I went into it with a negative view. I absolutely hate 'camps' and 'schools' for so-called trouble children. There have been so many horror stories from these places, yet parents still send the children they claim to love into the care of strangers that are basically bragging about how awful the children's lives will be. A 'controlled' environment. Right. Unfortunately, I think most parents know exactly what they're doing to their kids. I'd want to shoot anyone that treated my child the way they treat kids in those camps.

I was hoping this book would make a point about such camps, but no. It's just a very mediocre and rather boring and disjointed story that ultimately ends with Amy realizing that the problem was always her. Her family didn't do anything to cause her misery and can't be faulted for not supporting (or even attempting to understand) her. Everything is entirely her fault and she has to fix it. I hated it, but maybe parents with 'troubled teens' will enjoy the book.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5
Although my initial flip-through of Bonehead Camp did not look promising, I couldn’t resist a series that shares my name. I know the name Amy isn’t that uncommon, but hey, it is still something. I decided to give the book a chance.
And I think I am glad I did? This book had potential. However, it is short and choppy. I found it difficult to appreciate the first person narration and the main character is continually flipping between ridiculous confidence and blatant insecurity. It was hard to understand what was up with her. The climax dead brother. That was totally not mentioned before, right? was out of left field and made no real sense within the rest of the story.
She’s joined by three others with equally dramatic backstories. These backstories can somehow be blamed for their awful behavior. These characters show up fast and seem to disappear quickly even though they are around for most of the book.
I think you are supposed to walk away from Bonehead Bootcamp with an idea of tolerance and positive attitude and something about human nature. Like, humans become animals when they act like…animals. It is kind of a good idea but needed more editing and a few more chapters to actually develop. Basically, read Animal Farm instead.
But see, her name is Amy and my name is Amy and that counts for something so I will probably read some of the others in the sequel. If nothing else, this random book was a quick read.

[Lynette ~ Talia's Tomes ~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read the full review here:
http://escapingrealitybookreviews.wor...

I received a signed (Extreme happiness! I adore/collect signed books. ) copy of this debut novel for Christmas, and was very excited to finally get a chance to read it… but, first off, I have got to say how amazing the cover is! It's so pretty, and really grabs your attention.

Anyway, I really liked this book. It was NOTHING like I was expecting going into it, but that was definitely not a bad thing. First off, I LOVE how Edwards describes stuff – even the simplest of things – to make it interesting, and engaging. Especially when it comes to Amy. How she is written, I can honestly relate to her on many different levels, and thus, get even more out of this book.

It was fairly fast-paced (almost too much so in places, but that's probably just because I'm used to longer books), and the completely unexpected twist he puts on this camp for troubled teens in the end, left me with a new outlook on society, and myself.

Almost reminiscent of books such as Pilgrim's Progress (but different, very different) The Age of Amy: Bonehead Bootcamp was a wonderfully thought-provoking tale of discovering yourself and seeing the world from another’s perspective.

I'm 15, and I highly recommend this book.

[Autumn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Age of Amy was a good quick read. It provided an adequate plot line and stuck to the story. However, the sentence structure was choppy and repetitive. In the opening, the writer kept to a constant sentence structure with I and the being the lead in words. I hoped this would change as I read deeper into the book. However, that was not the case. Throughout the book, the author writes in a very basic form, subject and action. Edwards lacks the detail required to maintain the audience's attention which causes an overall feeling of dullness and boredom. As the book continued, I thought the writer would change the narrator's tone and language. Instead, he told the entire novella through an young naive point of view.

While I do criticize Edward's style of writing, I believe that he should recieve praise for the plot line of "Bonehead Bootcamp." The subject matter and viewpoint of the main character reminds me of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." I belive that by turning this plot line into a more adaptable young adult novella, the writer has made the moral more noticable. The definition of sanity and insanity differ from person to person because the world is never seen the same in two pairs of eyes.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book from Goodreads. It is a book amend at young Teens and found the author did well at getting a message across in the story. It was a fast and easy read. I did find this some what different

We meet Amy a 16 year old that has a chip on her shoulder. She feels her life has been turned up side down and it is her parents fault. She is not happy with the move her parents felt would be good for the family. Amy is so mad that she has lost it and stricks out. Her parents feel she needs to have some control set in her life. So they send her off to bootcamp for troubled teens.

Well Amy is not at all happy with this and is resentful but she goes for a weekend at Bonehead camp. She thinks she will just slide through this and all will be well. What a wake up call Amy gets.

Suddenly she realize that there are some changes she needs to make in her life for the better. Don't want to give anything away to you.

I would say this is a great book for young teens that are having some kind of struggle in their life and don't know which way to turn. The author show us no matter what bad thing we think is happening in our lifes we always can find or get help to change things around for the better.