Down and Out [Paperback]

Ed Cadenhead (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 260 pages
• Publisher: 1st Book Library (September 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0759645868
• ISBN-13: 978-0759645868
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,613,541 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous book!!, September 27, 2001

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Down and Out (Paperback)

Down and Out, by Ed Cadenhead is a wonderful book for the mature reader. I'm 12 and this book was age appropriate for me. It has everything a teenage kid would want in a book. It has action, sports, and comedy.This is one of my favorite books.. AND I DON'T EVEN LIKE TO READ THAT MUCH!! I would recommend this book to almost every teenage kid. Its wonderful!!!!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Book Serves as a Springboard to discussion, September 27, 2001

By 

Lori V. Andrews (Seminole, OK United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Down and Out (Paperback)

I have recently had the opportunity to preview "Down and Out", the first novel by Ed Cadenhead, an attorney living in Seminole Oklahoma. The book is centered upon the life of a fourteen-year-old star athlete from a small town in Oklahoma. It involves a great deal of football and basketball and I usually care very little for reading about sports. "Down and Out" however, turned out to be much more than a book about sports and I was pleasantly surprised.
The story told by Cadenhead is not complex but it deals with deep and important issues. It is probably best suited for young males in high school or college, but I found myself drawn to the story and still find myself thinking about it frequently.
The central character in the book is Anthony "A-Rod" Rodman and we first meet him when he is fourteen years old. A narrator, that often seems to reveal his own inner thoughts, describes him in almost poetic terms. We learn that he is a child at heart and loves to play football and basketball more than anything. He is forced to come of age though, by Tyrone, an evil and despicable drug dealer. Tyrone frames A-Rod in a drive-by shooting and forces him to sell drugs for him in order to get the evidence he needs to clear himself with the police. A-Rod is then pursued by members of a rival gang, mentally tortured by Tyrone and questioned by the law. The whole time this is happening, he simply wants to perform on the football field and basketball court. There are young black militants though that accuse him of being an "uncle Tom", playing for the white establishment, which sour even this experience for him.
As the story develops, we are allowed inside a world of drugs and gangs and violence. It is more than a superficial blood and guts story though. "Down and Out" is rich with symbolism and deals with difficult issues that many students face today. As a licensed therapist, I find it important to have students face and deal with issues like drugs, anger, race and violence in a safe environment before they are forced to deal with them in the real world. "Down and Out" provides an excellent springboard for discussion of these issues. The language and activities in "Down and Out" may strike some readers as rough or inappropriate for young adults. However, in order to attract and keep the attention of young readers, the language must be realistic or it will be recognized as fake.
By the end of the book, I felt I knew the characters and that I could predict how they would behave in situations outside of the book. This is a tribute to the author and means a great deal to me as a reader. I would recommend this book to most readers. I would encourage parents to read it and to have your children read it. For young men however, I consider it a must read. I often hear high school students complain that the books assigned in class are not relevant to their lives. As a result, they have no interest in reading them. That will not be a complaint about "Down and Out". I believe readers can learn a great deal about life and about themselves from reading and discussing "Down and Out".

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For Kids Tired of being Patronized!, September 25, 2001

By 

"karen846" (Concord, ma.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Down and Out (Paperback)

My 13yr. son and I both read this book. He immediately took it to school and gave it to his health teacher (who coaches football and teaches health and antidrug leactures), and his English teachers so she could consider it as the next book for the class to read. He warned her it had strong language, but like Catcher in the Rye, it startles kids by reading words they may not be able to speak at school but they hear on the bus everyday. The story is facepaced and bittersweet, it makes a completely non sports person appreciate a rare and gifted talent and appreciate how vulnerable it is.