The story: this is the story of a boy and his dog. But he's not just any boy, and it's not just any dog. JD has just finished up a stint in Juvie, and his mom hopes a dog will help him move past a really rotten time in his life--because JD's not the only one who's had a rotten time. Johnny Rotten is a shelter dog, abused by his former master, and this seems like a chance for both of them to move on...until the rescued Rottweiler is provoked into biting someone. Now it looks like he's going to be put down, right before JD and his mom lose everything in the accompanying lawsuit. How can a former juvenile delinquent talk the rest of the world into trusting him--and his dog?
June Cleaver's bloom ratings: Violence PG; language PG-13; Sexual Content PG-13 (nothing close to explicit, but lots of jokes with innuendo); nudity G; Magic and the Occult G; LGBT content PG; Substance Abuse PG-13 (underage kids don't actually score any liquor, but they do their best trying); Overall Rating: PG-13.
Liz's comments: don't hand this one to a sixth grader--they'll get all these kinds of ideas on their own in a couple of years, and there's no use getting them started early! In all, I'd review this for 8th and up, mostly because although the boys talk all bad, they don't actually get very far with it. And there's significant hope for JD to turn over a new leaf by the end of the book, under the influence of both Johnny Rotten and the girl who almost gets away.
Annotation with spoilers: JD is getting home from his summer-long stint at Juvie, although he's been telling everyone, including his three best friends, that he was visiting Aunt Judy upstate. No one quite believes it, but he's not about to come out with the truth. His mom, wanting him to move on, surprises him with a dog...but not just any dog. She's sprung Jon-Jon from the Humane Society's death row and brought him home. The dog is very wary of JD at first, and downright ugly to grown men, but eventually he and JD come to a understanding involving dog biscuits and pizza rolls.
There's one week of summer vacation left before school starts, and he and his three friends drive to the next town to try to score some booze using a fake ID. On the way home, he tells his buddies about the dog, but says they need to wait to see him until he's a little more settled. (He's always been best friends with Rudy, and Aaron and Mars form another duo of best friends in their quartet). When Aaron comes over a little later to try to meet the dog, JD sends him away.
But he's not able to keep Mars from jumping the back fence later on when Johnny is in the yard. Mars, disregarding or misreading the signals from the dog, gets himself bitten on the hand. JD brings him into the house, bandages what is obviously just a flesh wound, and generously gives Mars a gauze wrapping to go home in. Going out to the backyard to investigate, he sees a footprint from the other boy's AirJordan shoe that proves he was actually in the yard and approaching the dog, rather than that the dog jumped up on the fence and biting him, as Mars claims. The next thing JD knows, his mother is calling him with the news that Mars has been taken to the hospital for his wound--and later, that they've gotten a lawyer. It makes JD crazy that Mars's hillbilly family is milking this for all it's worth, but talking to The other boy does him no good.
In the meantime, JD is trying to reconnect with Janie, his girlfriend from before Juvie. But when he goes to her house, her dad essentially slams the door in his face. He has a little better luck with a short bit of chat on Facebook, but then bumbles a chance of talking to her at the gardening store where she works. In the meantime, it looks like Aaron is going to take Mars's side in the thing, and that Rudy is pretty much the only buddy JD has left.
School starts, and Mars shows up in a splint, claiming he has nerve damage. When JD gets him alone in the bathroom, Mars agrees to do a deal: he'll ask his parents to back off on the suit if JD will tell him where he was all summer. JD, seeing this as his only bargaining chip, agrees, but then knows he's going to have to tell both Rudy and Janie before anyone else. This goes about as well as expected, especially when Rudy hears that JD got busted for stealing a bottle of perfume to give his mom for Mother's Day. Even worse, the next day, it becomes obvious after he tells Mars the truth that the other kid had never really intended to keep his part of the deal, and the story is all over school by that afternoon.
JD's uncle Greg, a lawyer, is working for them, but JD thinks he's taking the easy way out by trying to get Mars's family to settle out of court for damages (most of which, but not all, will be paid by their homeowners' insurance--but enough will be leftover that JD and his mom will probably lose the house). In addition, because of mounting evidence against Johnny (from his former owner, and the shelter where mom adopted him) it looks like the dog--who is doing better and better each day--will end up being put down for sure.
Angry, JD and Rudy ditch school, overdose on donuts and caffeine, and decide to go snooping around Mars's house to see if they can find some blackmail-worthy item to use against HIM. All they find at the house is a hillbilly cousin with a shotgun, so after high tailing it out of there, they decide to listen to Janie's suggestion instead. The three of them, accompanied by Johnny, go to Aaron's house to ask him to put a little pressure on Mars to back down. The meeting doesn't go very well, Aaron won't agree to do anything, and JD is angry and depressed that his dog is going down because of Mars's lie.
But unexpectedly, Aaron shows up the next day with a telephone recording of both Mars admitting that he was over the fence in the backyard, and that his parents were pushing him to commit fraud. Aaron explains how his dog got sick when the boy was 9 years old, and when the animal was taken to the vet for medicine, he ended up never coming home. Aaron is still mad and a little angry about it. He doesn't think it's fair for JD to have to lose his dog too (although he does point out that JD could be nicer and less condescending to Mars in the future). With the evidence in hand, uncle Greg is able to get the DiMartino family to back down, and it appears that maybe Janie and JD will work out, and even that the four boys will be able to be friends again.