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I Am Leather-Man
Jake is fed up with his wealthy parents' divorce, and having to leave his home and school when their house is sold.
They're so busy with their own lives they don't realise he's slipped out of the arrangements they've made for him, and is living - alone - in his mother's new house while she's down-country at uni. Maybe if he just stays on (and tells a few fibs), everyone will finally stop messing with his life.
But that's when his adventures and troubles really begin.
This story, set in today's Auckland, is funny, fast and full of surprises.
They're so busy with their own lives they don't realise he's slipped out of the arrangements they've made for him, and is living - alone - in his mother's new house while she's down-country at uni. Maybe if he just stays on (and tells a few fibs), everyone will finally stop messing with his life.
But that's when his adventures and troubles really begin.
This story, set in today's Auckland, is funny, fast and full of surprises.
149 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
About the author
Ged Maybury
24 books8 followersGed Maybury is a children's book author. He was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1953, spent his childhood in Dunedin, and has been based in Australia since 2002. He has been writing books for children and young adults since 1984. He was a finalist in the AIM New Zealand Children's Book Awards 1994 with The Triggerstone, and in the NZ Post Children's Book Awards 2001;[1] with Crab Apples. He writes science fiction, in particular of the steampunk subgenre, and humour.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 12, 2026
I'm pretty sure I brought this during the early/mid 2010s when I was going through my aussie author phase, even though this author is from New Zealand.
I can't remember if I've ever read it but I did find a book mark between 128 and 129.
At 31, I'm definitely the wrong audience for this. I most likely wouldve liked it a decade or so ago..but now..
Leather Man is about a teenage, who lies to his divorced parents about his whereabouts, tries to fit into school, and in between all that, living in a house with no power.
Written in 1st person..it comes of as someone speaking to you about their day rather than a fictional story with words in paper.
I can't remember if I've ever read it but I did find a book mark between 128 and 129.
At 31, I'm definitely the wrong audience for this. I most likely wouldve liked it a decade or so ago..but now..
Leather Man is about a teenage, who lies to his divorced parents about his whereabouts, tries to fit into school, and in between all that, living in a house with no power.
Written in 1st person..it comes of as someone speaking to you about their day rather than a fictional story with words in paper.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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January 10, 2016I have been lucky enough to meet this charismatic and entertaining author on several occasions now and each time he's commented that he knows my name from somewhere. When it struck him on our last meeting that he'd used the name for a character in one of his earlier books - this book! - I of course had to read it.
The story is light and easy, and the cringey kind of funny where things are going wrong and you can just *see* that it's all going to end in disaster but you're invested now, so you have to see things out. The narrator, Jake, is a sheltered, self-entitled teen whose parents' divorce is such a huge inconvenience to him that he breaks the trust of all his significant adults and camps out in an empty house for two weeks. One little white lie rolls into another until he's juggling cover stories, promises he can't keep, the responsibilities of maintaining a house on a shoestring budget, his schoolwork AND all the emotional upheaval of being a new kid at school and falling in love for the first time. Enter Shayla. I'm predisposed to like her, what can I say? Jake falls head over heels for her, despite that she's not particularly sympathetic or encouraging, and struggles to keep all the rest of his escalating disasters in line so they don't impede on the progress he's making with her. Fun story! I think it would be most enjoyed by teens.
The story is light and easy, and the cringey kind of funny where things are going wrong and you can just *see* that it's all going to end in disaster but you're invested now, so you have to see things out. The narrator, Jake, is a sheltered, self-entitled teen whose parents' divorce is such a huge inconvenience to him that he breaks the trust of all his significant adults and camps out in an empty house for two weeks. One little white lie rolls into another until he's juggling cover stories, promises he can't keep, the responsibilities of maintaining a house on a shoestring budget, his schoolwork AND all the emotional upheaval of being a new kid at school and falling in love for the first time. Enter Shayla. I'm predisposed to like her, what can I say? Jake falls head over heels for her, despite that she's not particularly sympathetic or encouraging, and struggles to keep all the rest of his escalating disasters in line so they don't impede on the progress he's making with her. Fun story! I think it would be most enjoyed by teens.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews