What do you think?
Rate this book
Bricked
Jobless and divorced, Pat Riordan takes a little-sought-after teaching job at the District's school for the hard-to-handle, Wolfcreek.
His sense of loss makes him a good fit for the boys of the school who call their banishment from the mainstream "bricked."
Doug Donovan, the school's principal, agrees with Riordan that gentle, but firm teaching strategies are the best way for their kids to learn. But ego-driven administrators, who want the school's location for more promising students, feel otherwise and start a campaign to discredit the Wolfcreek staff and curriculum.
As the school year unwinds, Riordan finds his way into the personal life of one of the students, Bobby, and gets thrust into the role of rescuer when Bobby's mother is abused by a live-in boyfriend.
"Bricked" follows Riordan, the students, and staff, in what might be the school's final year.
His sense of loss makes him a good fit for the boys of the school who call their banishment from the mainstream "bricked."
Doug Donovan, the school's principal, agrees with Riordan that gentle, but firm teaching strategies are the best way for their kids to learn. But ego-driven administrators, who want the school's location for more promising students, feel otherwise and start a campaign to discredit the Wolfcreek staff and curriculum.
As the school year unwinds, Riordan finds his way into the personal life of one of the students, Bobby, and gets thrust into the role of rescuer when Bobby's mother is abused by a live-in boyfriend.
"Bricked" follows Riordan, the students, and staff, in what might be the school's final year.
274 pages, Paperback
First published December 20, 2014
7 people are currently reading
16 people want to read
About the author
J. Michael McGee
4 books4 followersI grew up across the street from a house where a young girl was murdered. That mystery, still unsolved to this day, drove me to work in the criminal justice system, first as a court investigator and later as a prison counselor.
In between those jobs, I worked as a college speech instructor, a freelance writer, a newspaper reporter and a high school teacher. I took time-out to travel overseas, hike the Grand Canyon several times and return to school to earn three master degrees.
The young girl’s death decades ago also prompted me to become a “paperback writer” of mysteries.
As an investigator for 15 years, I heard first-hand stories from men who committed crimes. Later, as a mental health therapist at a prison, I developed a keen ear for hard and realistic dialogue.
I wrote my first book Bricked after teaching in a school for at-risk students. Pat Riordan, the protagonist in my trilogy, was introduced in this novel.
While Bricked is fictional, the episodes and mannerisms of the characters personify life inside a school for disenfranchised youth.
In the follow-up novels, The Slip Swing and The Cues, Riordan, the teacher, has also taken on the role of an amateur shamus.
The Slip Swing has a paranormal bent. The third book, The Cues, finds Riordan uncovering facts surrounding an unsolved murder and the whereabouts of local missing women.
Each book is driven by hard dialogue, reflecting my years working in the criminal justice system and my experiences as a teacher.
My intent was to provide a fresh twist for the reader of mysteries and for the detective in all of us. Here is a link to my webpage to learn more about the Pat Riordan trilogy: https://www.jmichaelmcgee.com/
I am now working on my fourth novel, Franklin's Bennies.
I am always interested in hearing about your experiences. I hope you’ll share your thoughts, whether about writing or the affairs of our world.
In between those jobs, I worked as a college speech instructor, a freelance writer, a newspaper reporter and a high school teacher. I took time-out to travel overseas, hike the Grand Canyon several times and return to school to earn three master degrees.
The young girl’s death decades ago also prompted me to become a “paperback writer” of mysteries.
As an investigator for 15 years, I heard first-hand stories from men who committed crimes. Later, as a mental health therapist at a prison, I developed a keen ear for hard and realistic dialogue.
I wrote my first book Bricked after teaching in a school for at-risk students. Pat Riordan, the protagonist in my trilogy, was introduced in this novel.
While Bricked is fictional, the episodes and mannerisms of the characters personify life inside a school for disenfranchised youth.
In the follow-up novels, The Slip Swing and The Cues, Riordan, the teacher, has also taken on the role of an amateur shamus.
The Slip Swing has a paranormal bent. The third book, The Cues, finds Riordan uncovering facts surrounding an unsolved murder and the whereabouts of local missing women.
Each book is driven by hard dialogue, reflecting my years working in the criminal justice system and my experiences as a teacher.
My intent was to provide a fresh twist for the reader of mysteries and for the detective in all of us. Here is a link to my webpage to learn more about the Pat Riordan trilogy: https://www.jmichaelmcgee.com/
I am now working on my fourth novel, Franklin's Bennies.
I am always interested in hearing about your experiences. I hope you’ll share your thoughts, whether about writing or the affairs of our world.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 6, 2021
Interesting take on a difficult subject
The book presented a realistic depiction of what it must be like to work with at risk youth, a topic of which I had no prior knowledge. It kept me engaged and I learned something new.
Highly recommended.
The book presented a realistic depiction of what it must be like to work with at risk youth, a topic of which I had no prior knowledge. It kept me engaged and I learned something new.
Highly recommended.
October 5, 2020
This is a review from Readsy Discovery. It will launch there on October 27, 2020. Here is the link in the meantime, https://reedsy.com/discovery/book/bri...
Loved it! 😍
This is for anyone who thinks teaching's a cushy job, who thinks teachers are only in it for the money. Pat Riordan's in it for the kids.
My daughter was a teacher in an inner-city setting for 15 years. Her first master's degree was in urban education. She dealt with many of the same types of kids, with the same backgrounds, as the fictional character Pat Riordan does in this book. From everything I learned from my daughter, I can say that the author captures the essence of what it's like to teach the lost kids, the difficult-to-educate, the kids whose backgrounds interfere with their very ability to learn, the ones whom society writes off.
Pat Riordan is devoted to his students. He uses non-traditional techniques to reach them, wherever they are, on whatever planet they happen to be on a given day. His personal life is almost non-existent, revolving around a couple of ninety-year-old-plus women in his apartment building and his cat, named Pig. He has a kind of "spidey sense" about a new student, Bobby, who's sent to the school he works for, Wolfcreek, which only admits troubled students or those who cannot succeed in mainstream schools.
Bobby shouldn't really be at Wolfcreek; he's been sent there because he had an altercation with a trash can, and the former-Marine principal won't accept that behavior. He doesn't try to get to the bottom of Bobby's behavior--he just sends him to Wolfcreek. Bobby and his mother Sarah were abandoned by Bobby's dad, and Sarah's choice of men has led to a terrible situation for Bobby and his wonderful dog, Bear. The dog is Bobby's only sense of comfort, and the man who's moved in with them is constantly threatening to kill the dog or bring him to the pound.
Bobby's the "new kid" in school, and it's Riordan's job to get the other kids to accept Bobby. Although it's a daunting task, he makes it work. The class consists of a group that reminds me of the "sweathogs" from the old TV show, "Welcome Back, Kotter." Each child has a saga of his own, and Riordan is sensitive to their needs without wimping out. He's tough when he needs to be and tender when that's called for. In short, the right kind of teacher for this group.
Enter a newly-minted PhD in administration who once taught in a classroom and now wields her new doctorate as power to shake up the school district in which Riordan and his fellow teachers combine to work with these kids. (Note: This is an all-too-familiar story from my daughter and her colleagues: New PhDs who either have no or very little classroom experience who decide they're going to make policy with little or no input from classroom teachers, who have to implement or suffer from those changes.)
I don't want to reveal more details about this book. Suffice it to say that I enjoyed it enough to read it in two days. The author does a believable job of demonstrating the very real challenges of today's teachers, as well as revealing the obstacles so many children these days face with their difficult home circumstances. He weaves an interesting tale of dedication and belief on the part of teachers in students whose lives would most likely be written off or just discarded on their way to prison or worse. He shows, through dialogue (although it's often on the part of a student who speaks out in class), how these students are talented, articulate and intelligent, despite having been labeled as the opposite.
If possible, I would have given this book 4.5 stars. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is that I found the dialogue in the beginning to be a little formal between Riordan and people in informal situations (e.g., in a bar or between fellow teachers). Otherwise, I think this is an interesting, realistic book of fiction. I'm waiting for the next Pat Riordan book.
Loved it! 😍
This is for anyone who thinks teaching's a cushy job, who thinks teachers are only in it for the money. Pat Riordan's in it for the kids.
My daughter was a teacher in an inner-city setting for 15 years. Her first master's degree was in urban education. She dealt with many of the same types of kids, with the same backgrounds, as the fictional character Pat Riordan does in this book. From everything I learned from my daughter, I can say that the author captures the essence of what it's like to teach the lost kids, the difficult-to-educate, the kids whose backgrounds interfere with their very ability to learn, the ones whom society writes off.
Pat Riordan is devoted to his students. He uses non-traditional techniques to reach them, wherever they are, on whatever planet they happen to be on a given day. His personal life is almost non-existent, revolving around a couple of ninety-year-old-plus women in his apartment building and his cat, named Pig. He has a kind of "spidey sense" about a new student, Bobby, who's sent to the school he works for, Wolfcreek, which only admits troubled students or those who cannot succeed in mainstream schools.
Bobby shouldn't really be at Wolfcreek; he's been sent there because he had an altercation with a trash can, and the former-Marine principal won't accept that behavior. He doesn't try to get to the bottom of Bobby's behavior--he just sends him to Wolfcreek. Bobby and his mother Sarah were abandoned by Bobby's dad, and Sarah's choice of men has led to a terrible situation for Bobby and his wonderful dog, Bear. The dog is Bobby's only sense of comfort, and the man who's moved in with them is constantly threatening to kill the dog or bring him to the pound.
Bobby's the "new kid" in school, and it's Riordan's job to get the other kids to accept Bobby. Although it's a daunting task, he makes it work. The class consists of a group that reminds me of the "sweathogs" from the old TV show, "Welcome Back, Kotter." Each child has a saga of his own, and Riordan is sensitive to their needs without wimping out. He's tough when he needs to be and tender when that's called for. In short, the right kind of teacher for this group.
Enter a newly-minted PhD in administration who once taught in a classroom and now wields her new doctorate as power to shake up the school district in which Riordan and his fellow teachers combine to work with these kids. (Note: This is an all-too-familiar story from my daughter and her colleagues: New PhDs who either have no or very little classroom experience who decide they're going to make policy with little or no input from classroom teachers, who have to implement or suffer from those changes.)
I don't want to reveal more details about this book. Suffice it to say that I enjoyed it enough to read it in two days. The author does a believable job of demonstrating the very real challenges of today's teachers, as well as revealing the obstacles so many children these days face with their difficult home circumstances. He weaves an interesting tale of dedication and belief on the part of teachers in students whose lives would most likely be written off or just discarded on their way to prison or worse. He shows, through dialogue (although it's often on the part of a student who speaks out in class), how these students are talented, articulate and intelligent, despite having been labeled as the opposite.
If possible, I would have given this book 4.5 stars. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is that I found the dialogue in the beginning to be a little formal between Riordan and people in informal situations (e.g., in a bar or between fellow teachers). Otherwise, I think this is an interesting, realistic book of fiction. I'm waiting for the next Pat Riordan book.
October 11, 2020
As a teacher in mainstream education who has worked with a large number of disadvantaged and challenging children I was really drawn to this book. Pat Riordan is a teacher passionate about seeing the potential in the kids others have tossed aside. Working in Wolfcreek, a school for dealing with the most challenging behaviour, the book follows Pat as he brings Booby into the school.
Given the subject matter I did find the narrative quite clunky and slow going where I anticipated a faster pace. While the author does take his time in building up the characters back stories, I found it quite hard to engage and keep going ... it seemed to dull the sharp edge of the subject matter. I also don't wish to read the N- word in any context and was quite surprised and disappointed to read it and other racist comments where, I feel, the point could have been made in an alternative way.
Having said that, as a teacher I enjoyed being reminded of what a tough job teaching is and how all consuming passion and commitment to the job can change lives. It is a powerful reminder that teaching is so much more than lesson time for so many in education. So thank you Mr J Michael McGee for tackling such a difficult subject with insight into the politics that makes the job ten times harder!
Given the subject matter I did find the narrative quite clunky and slow going where I anticipated a faster pace. While the author does take his time in building up the characters back stories, I found it quite hard to engage and keep going ... it seemed to dull the sharp edge of the subject matter. I also don't wish to read the N- word in any context and was quite surprised and disappointed to read it and other racist comments where, I feel, the point could have been made in an alternative way.
Having said that, as a teacher I enjoyed being reminded of what a tough job teaching is and how all consuming passion and commitment to the job can change lives. It is a powerful reminder that teaching is so much more than lesson time for so many in education. So thank you Mr J Michael McGee for tackling such a difficult subject with insight into the politics that makes the job ten times harder!
October 4, 2020
Bricked centers on teacher, Pat Riordan, and his group of 'wire' boys at a hard-to-handle school, and the story places particular focus on Bobby, his new 12 year old student who is currently living with his mother and her abusive boyfriend. McGee manages to create an enthralling narrative that provides thorough descriptions without losing a sense of plot, and provides a distinct realness and sincerity to each of the characters that allowed me as the reader to feel much more understanding and empathy towards them. This is particularly in regards to Riordan's students, who McGee takes the time to create individual, distinct backgrounds for each one, which nicely contradicts how usually in real life, these students are often overlooked by their teachers. Despite its fictional nature, this novel gave me a much better insight into how these schools work as well as the politics involved between administration, government and teachers. Highly recommend!
October 6, 2020
A well-written book with all of the depth and sincerity needed to create a sense of cohesion and empathy between the narrative and the characters. A tough look at some harsh realities of the teaching profession, coming at a time when we need an infinite amount of respect and support for our teachers--this book sheds light and reality on that and furthers the discussion of how truly important teachers are to our society and culture at large and how much more support they deserve from us.
I enjoyed how the author, J. Michael McGee, introduced his characters and wove in details and care throughout. McGee clearly has experience and passion for the work and that shows through in his writing creating a bridge of connection between author and readers. This book is a relatable one and the kind of triumphant story of the spirit that will never get old.
I enjoyed how the author, J. Michael McGee, introduced his characters and wove in details and care throughout. McGee clearly has experience and passion for the work and that shows through in his writing creating a bridge of connection between author and readers. This book is a relatable one and the kind of triumphant story of the spirit that will never get old.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews