Customer Reviews

Behaving Bradley

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I like the book `'Behaving Bradley''. What I really like is that you don't know what's going to happen next in the book. I think the author made a good use of foreshadow and there were a lot of twists in the story For example Shawn Gubert is the own that set Franko up against Bradley and the Code of conduct, which was a total surprise. I also admire the way the author uses characterization. He's really good at describing how the characters look like (for example Bradley always wears a baseball cap) but always who they are; by that I mean what they like or dislike and their emotions. The book is really funny! I love the way the author talks about a pretty serious subject (Code of conduct) and turns it into something funny.

What I dislike about the book is the ending. I think the ending should be a little more exciting and it should make more sense. For example Shawn Gubert, the guy that deals drugs, ends up being student council! I think that's kind of weird. The other thing about the ending is that there are still some pieces of the puzzle that are missing. Why did Candace drop out of school? Why did Greg Leskiw resign from student Council? Oh well, I guess not knowing everything does kind of make it more interesting.

Bradley, a high school junior, is completely fed up. In his high school no one seems to respect anyone else. Some people are constantly treated badly by others. The teachers are hypocritical and seem to enjoy making students feel bad about themselves. Now the administration has decided they are going to write and put into effect a code of conduct for the students, telling them how to behave. They pretend they want student input into the code, but they seem to be trying to sneak the code through without student approval. Bradley has a problem with that.

When Bradley attends a student council meeting to see what the student council is planning on doing about the code of conduct, he realizes that they aren't planning on doing anything at all, for fear of upsetting the teachers who give them grades and recommendations to college. But Bradley isn't going to stand for that, either. He tells the student council that they need to investigate the code and to actually get the student input the administration said they wanted.

The student council members are afraid to challenge the code, so they appoint Bradley as the head of the code input team. When he starts investigating, though, he realizes it isn't as easy as he thought. Teachers are angry at him for challenging them. Other students are threatening him for getting involved. And he is beginning to feel as though he may never make things better at his school.

I liked Bradley's style of narration, and I liked how he described the high school experience. I liked the other students and their unique quirks. I also liked Bradley's attitudes about himself and the way he viewed his world. However, Bradley was sometimes a little cynical for my taste and I didn't like the way he thought about Stephanie. I also hated the teachers in this book; they all seemed really awful and didn't care about the students at all.

I picked up this book from the school library with the thought in my head that it was going to be incredibly corny and some "school appropriate" version of what being a teenager was like. I was wrong. Brad Gold is a normal teenage guy with insecurities and the tendancy to ogle gorgeous ladies. If you want to get inside a teenage guy's mind - this book will help. If you just want to laugh at the things he points out about how stupid our own teachers are - this book will help. If you just want to read a good book that is so funny you'll find yourself sharing passages with friends - this is your book. In fact, I read this book in about two days, and I'm the type of guy who will read a maximum of about 10 pages a day - and that's when I really like the book. This book is amazing. Give it a try.