Returning to Normal

Locked Out #1

by Patrick Jones

Prisoners pay for their crimes by being locked up. But what about their kids, who are locked out?

Life is looking up for Xavier. Things are good with Jennie, his baseball coach believes in him, he’s earned the role of closer, and his dad’s coming home after serving ten years.

But making up for lost time with his dad doesn’t go as Xavier had hoped. It seems his dad’s always angry with him. Or drinking. Or out. Or lecturing Xavier on what it means to be a man. When the tension at home builds, Xavier’s own hot temper flares, threatening to send him down the same path as his father. Xavier is determined to make a different life. Can he figure out how to control his actions to keep his baseball dreams alive?

Genres: Young Adult

112 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2015

About the author

Patrick Jones is the author of five realistic teen novels, most recently Stolen Car((Walker / Bloomsbury, 2008). His first young adult novel Things Change (Walker & Company, 2004) was named by the Young Adult Library Services Association as a best book for reluctant readers, and was runner-up in the Teen Buckeye Book Award selected by Ohio teens. His second novel Nailed was published by Walker / Bloomsbury in spring 2006 and was a runner-up for the Great Lake Book Award. His 2007 novel, Chasing Tail Lights, is nominated for the Minnesota Books Awards. His most recent (and last) professional publication is Connecting with Reluctant Readers (Neal-Schuman, 2006). In 2006, he won lifetime achievement awards from both the Catholic Library Association, and the American Library Association. Jones is a frequent speaker at library conferences, having visited all fifty states, as well as in Canada, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand. Jones grew up in Flint, Michigan, but now lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Read more at his web page www.connectingya.com, including FAQs about Things Change and Nailed (perfect for book reports!). NOTE: After a bruising experience with another author, he's limited his reviews on Good Reads to only raves as not to disturb the "fellowship" of YA writers.

Reviews

[Sally · Rating 1 out of 5]

*shakes book seeing if another chapter or two is going to fall out because otherwise that was pointless*

[Jessi]

Book Review Jessi Martines
Period 5
2/13/19
Have you ever got out of prison after serving ten years and had to try and adjust to life outside.If not you should read the book “Returning to normal” by Patrick Jones. The book is a fictional book , About a kid who is struggling at school and all of a sudden his father returns from prison after ten years which makes life at home and school even harder than before, at school he is in and out of eliot ,does drugs ,and hangs around the wrong people.At home he has a mean father that he feels doesn't care about him at all. The main characters name is Xavier he has a dark skin perplection, he does drugs, doesn’t have much experience with a father, And to make it worse his parents don’t seem to care about where he is as long as he comes back home.

The character is usually mad at people that he feels aren’t cool. He doesn't really care about what people do as long as it’s not about him, He doesn’t really show much emotions or doesn’t say much about himself. The main character has been trying to improve on his mental attitude because he gets mad easy, he tries to get his way even if it means getting in big trouble, he is trying to get along with his father since they haven't been together in ten years, He does alot of bad things.His biggest problem in the story is him trying to connect with his father but is hard since he was in prison and doesn’t usually like to talk about it, so it’s a struggle for the main character to connect with him.The book is really good to read it's very exciting to read since it's about a kid born into a life he never wanted to be in , so he struggles to get the best out of it so I feel like it's a really good book.

This book is a really good book for people that like books where the main character is just an average guy trying to live life but has a lot of problems in his life that he struggles to fit into, but always ends up even worse than before.The book also can relate to the main character because he was not really connected to his father, so he is not to happy when his father comes back from prison. I feel like this book is really fun to read because it relates to a lot of kids,teens,and adults in this generation, The book also shows how he tried to make a living in his life even if it's not a good one. The main character has had spent multiple times at eliot which is a place where the bad kids go when they have done a serious crime. The story is mostly about a kid that only has one dream which about being a pro baseball player but he is not doing good enough to show that he wants to be, since he had punched his coach which meant he got kicked of the team.