Club Meds [Paperback]

Katherine Hall Page (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 20, 2006

JACK-IN-THE-BOX

Jack Sutton has been on meds since third grade, when his mother came to his classroom and discovered his teacher had put him in a washing machine box.

Jack and his friends refer to the nurse's office, where they line up daily for their medications, as Club Meds. But Club Meds is no vacation spot -- it's what enables Jack and Mary, who have ADHD, and Sam, who suffers from epilepsy, to navigate the treacherous waters of Busby Memorial High School. So when major-league bully and Jack's longtime nemesis Chuck forces Jack to turn over his Ritalin, Jack is once again in a box, one that's far more frightening than a discarded packing carton.

The kids from Club Meds come to Jack's defense with a plan that's outrageous and dangerous, and a long shot at best. It will test their determination and their courage -- and it will change their lives forever.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-10–Jack Sutton is a member of Club Meds, which is what the kids who have to be medicated call themselves. He has ADHD and needs Ritalin to function. He has spent the summer dreading the start of ninth grade because once again he will have to deal with bully Chuck Williams. Early on, Chuck corners Jack and forces him to turn over 20 Ritalin tablets each week. Afraid of being beat up, Jack goes along with the demand and enlists his friend Mary, who is also ADHD, to help him. Not only does she share her pills, but she also devises a plan to get him out of the mess he is in. While the issues of facing up to bullying, surviving the first year of high school, and dealing with parents and friends are relevant, the long discourses and reflections on ADHD make the book seem as though it was written simply to fill a need. As a result, the plot is secondary to heavy-handed information, and Jack becomes a poster child rather than a well-rounded character. While the book fills a niche for older readers, it pales in comparison to Jack Gantos's Joey Pigza novels (Farrar).–Janet Hilbun, Texas Woman's University, Denton
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 7-10. A seasoned mystery writer for both adults and YAs shifts gears here, offering a predictable plot about bullying lifted by a disarming protagonist. "I myself have never tried going without those little pills and I don't want to," says ADHD sufferer Jack Sutton, a freshman who makes daily visits to "Club Meds" to receive his dosage from the high-school nurse. When a meathead named Chuck begins shaking down Jack for his Ritalin, leaving him undermedicated, Club Meds members join forces to teach the tormentor a lesson. Jack's fretful first-person narrative, inflected with sporadic profanity and resigned humor ("I can even get distracted by being distracted"), helps to smooth the gaps in the teens' implausible scheme; more problematic are the simplistic characterizations of adults and the fact that the negative effects of Jack's meds hiatus are more assumed than shown. Still, YAs who share Jack's medical problem will appreciate a novel that casts ADHD sufferers as clever avengers, and does so in a speedy narrative that won't overload their circuits. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Simon Pulse (June 20, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416909036
• ISBN-13: 978-1416909033
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,819,593 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Katherine Hall Page is the author of seventeen previous Faith Fairchild mysteries, the first of which received the Agatha Award for best first mystery, and recently The Body in the Snowdrift was honored with the Agatha Award for best novel of 2006. Page also won an Agatha for her short story "The Would-Be Widower." She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and son.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too, June 21, 2006

By 

TeensReadToo "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Club Meds (Paperback)

For John "Jack" Sutton, life is made up of two things--when the meds he takes for ADHD are streaming through his system, and when they're wearing off. For as long as he can remember, he's taken medication at regular intervals throughout the day to help with his ADHD, otherwise known as Attention Deficit hyperactivity Disorder. Although there are still plenty of times when his mind wanders, or when he can't answer a direct question, or when he's in his own world and doesn't even realize that someone is speaking to him, these times are fewer and farther between when he's taking his Ritalin.

Jack has a pretty close-knit group of friends: Mary, who also has ADHD, and Sam, who takes medication to keep him from having seizures due to epilepsy. Along with a few other students at Busby Memorial High School, they make up Club Meds--the students who arrive at the nurse's office daily for their mid-day dose of medication.

Jack's life isn't only made up of Club Meds, though. There's also his mother, a stay-at-home mom who has the art of worrying down to an exact science. For someone who is a freshman in high school, Jack has very little freedom. He's not allowed to talk on the phone after eight p.m., especially to Mary, who for some reason is persona non grata to his mother. He doesn't go out to parties, or stay out late, or date. And when and if he does get in trouble, which happens a lot when he deals with his father, his punishment is to have his computer taken away. Since Jack's idea of light reading is a Mac manual, this is torture. For his father, a former jock who doesn't even truly believe in either ADHD or the need for medication, dealing with Jack is something he tries to avoid at all costs.

And then there's Chuck Williams, the bully of all bullies, who gets off on tormenting the members of Club Meds. For Jack, things get even worse when Chuck starts demanding he turn over some of his weekly medication for his own purposes. How is Jack supposed to deal with everyday life without his medicine? As things go from bad to worse, it's up to the members of Club Meds to come up with a plan to end Chuck's assault.

CLUB MEDS is a great, entertaining, quick read. I've been fortunate to read some of Ms. Page's previous releases in the adult mystery market, and have to say that the same fast-paced style is in play here. A great read about being different, tolerating cruelty, and having what's mentioned in the book as "a disability that no one can see."

5.0 out of 5 stars ClumbMeds, August 6, 2006

By 

Ms. L. Herzog "handspringgirl97" (pa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Club Meds (Paperback)

I jest finished reading this book it was great, I myself Have adhd so i know some of the heartships, so if you do or don't have adhd this book is a must. I just couldn't put it down, until my mom borowed it and finished it in the same day

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read for kids, parents, anyone., June 28, 2006

By 

Sound Investor (Denver, Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Club Meds (Paperback)

A friend who's son has ADHD lent me this book. I read it in one sitting. "Club Meds" does for ADHD what "Motherless Brooklyn" by Jonathan Lethem did for Tourette's Syndrome: we get a glimpse inside the head of someone suffering from a condition few of us can recognize or understand. Written from the perspective of Jack Sutton, an irreverent, realistic young teen dealing with the effects of going off his medication when the high school bully confiscates his Ritalin, which Jack has been taking since the 3rd grade.

A good book for kids with ADHD who need a peer character to look up to, and to remind them that they are not alone with their condition. A good book for parents who want a better understanding of what their "different" kids might be going through at school AND at home. A good book for anyone who enjoys a good story and interesting, well developed characters. A side note: my 54 year old husband woke up in the middle of the night, went down to the kitchen, found the book on the counter, and started reading while eating some cereal. He read a third of it before going back to bed, then finished it the next day. Now that's impressive!