Music, television, cigarettes and junk food - in the world of Matthews' bitingly satiric novel, these industries all rely on and take advantage of teenagers for a large proportion of their incomes. High-school senior Todd Noland has grown tired of it and develops a unique idea. Stop buying it. Stop buying the products, the hype, and the peer pressure. All of it. With the aid of fellow senior Joel Karstan, he organises a protest against the neighbourhood convenience store that is effective enough to attract the attention of Annie McCullough. A 20-something executive for R2Rev, a music video cable channel boasting edgy and offensive hosts, she is young enough to appreciate the protest yet savvy enough to help carry it and her career forward. As the media attention builds, the teens set their sights on a new cause - electing their history teacher to a seat on the town council.
Like We Care
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–Music, television, cigarettes, junk food. In the world of Matthews's bitingly satiric novel, these industries all rely on and take advantage of teenagers for a large proportion of their incomes. High-school senior Todd Noland has grown tired of it and develops a unique idea. Stop buying it. Stop buying the products, the hype, and the peer pressure. All of it. With the aid of fellow senior Joel Karstan, he organizes a protest against the neighborhood convenience store that is effective enough to attract the attention of Annie McCullough. A 20-something executive for R2Rev, a music video cable channel boasting edgy and offensive hosts, she is young enough to appreciate the protest yet savvy enough to help carry it and her career forward. As the media attention builds, the teens set their sights on a new cause–electing their history teacher to a seat on the town council. Dark humor and sharp language reminiscent of Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club (Hyperion, 1996), alongside informed satire, bring a funny and often real vision to the pages. But it is the sense of empowerment that readers feel in Todd's and Joel's actions that makes this book thrilling and worthwhile.–Matthew L. Moffett, Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Matthews, a seasoned journalist and screenwriter, examines pop culture with a satirical, irreverent eye in this hilarious debut novel. MTV and VH-1 are out, and in their place is R2Rev (short for "Rap, Rock, Revolution")--a cable station that's taking disrespectful, vulgar teenagers to even greater heights of fame. Annie, a glorified production assistant with a VP title, has been relegated to baby sitting R2Rev's star VJ on the road, even though the network brass have Annie to thank for much of the young network's success. She hopes to really show her stuff when she lands in a small Illinois town where the star high-school athlete, Joel Kasten, has started a revolution of his own by boycotting corporate products aimed at teenagers--cigarettes, chips, sugary sodas, candy. Such an impassioned move is completely out of his cool character, but Joel likes how his legions of followers do as he does. Without a scintilla of sentimentality, Matthews shows that despite teenagers' general apathy--and the corporate world's exploitation of the same--there remains a shimmer of hope that young people can muddle through and make a difference. Mary Frances Wilkens
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
refreshingly original work,
This review is from: Like We Care (Hardcover)
Seventeen year old Joel Karstan hopes to go to college on a baseball scholarship but he takes an unexpected time-out from playing when his jaw is broken when he is hit by a ball. After six weeks of having his jaw wired shut, the popular teen is hanging out at the Happy Snack convenience store when he realizes that the managers treats him and the other teens like garbage. With the help of his friend Todd Noland he organizes a boycott that grows bigger every day and finally attracts the attraction of television executive Annie McCullough.
She works for a rock Cable music station that makes gangsta rap seen like lullabies. She finds Kyle charismatic and believes he and his protest would play very well on her television station. Joel and his boycott grab the attention of teens across the nation who start boycotting stores that exploit teenagers as a demographic group. Todd and Joel's next project is getting their black history teacher elected to the white city council by getting the 18-23 age group to come out and vote. They prove that teenagers can make a difference. Tom Matthews takes sacred cows and satirizes thing in a way that is simultaneously funny and sad. LIKE WE CARE is a story of two wise arse students who know how to play the system and make it work for them. Annie goes from executive flunky to detached observer to active participant. If teenagers ever truly organized they would have plenty of economic and political clout. This is a refreshingly original work that has a very special appeal to the younger crowd and anyone who remembers Wild in the Streets. Harriet Klausner
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great discussion book,
By Bookaholic "Moongoddess" (Madison, Wi) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Like We Care (Hardcover)
I don't know that I would have picked up this book on my own. A friend loaned me an advanced copy to read, and I was pleasantly surprised by several things. The best part of this book is the humor. I really enjoyed the clever turns of phrase and especially the parenthetical comments...laughed out loud every few pages! The second pleasant surprise is the depth with which Matthews explores this scenario. I was fascinated to learn about the marketing philosophy and techniques of the fictional network, which shamelessly and very aggressively stalks teens both to rake in their revenue and shape their views, at literally all costs.
While the political race tie-in was interesting, I found myself more drawn to the relationships and language of the young people, the garish, almost characatured behavior of the 'celebrities,' and the power of one person...or a small group...to make a huge difference. The underdog aspect, with Todd and Ira sort of masterminding everything and getting their own brand of geek-revenge just has to be satisfying to anyone out there who wasn't the most popular in school! Matthews's ability to let us hear what goes on in his characters' heads (truly remarkable; I could 'hear; their voices and inflections) and his shrewd representation of marketing on a national level are what make this book rich with questions and discussion opportunities. While the media prey on teen apathy, I don't think anyone would say the teens in this book are stupid. Like We Care is a study in revolution....just not the kind the network had in mind! Today I'll buy my own copy so I can mark it up and talk about it with my book group!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I care!,
By
This review is from: Like We Care (Hardcover)
The premise of this book sounds simple: Tired of being tricked, two teenagers start an anti-consumerism revolution. The reality of the book is far more complicated and oddly deep.
It starts out simple: Josh, star athelete, minor rebel, all around "Mr. Popular" is beaned in the face by a fastball -- and, as a consequence, has his jaw wired shut for six weeks. Unable to speak -- or smoke -- he really starts to see the people he's hanging with. To really hear what kind of bull they're saying. This book has one of my favorite lines -- "maybe when you stop speaking, you really start to listen." Temporarily on the fringes of the group he formerly lead, Josh winds up hanging out with elementary school buddy, Todd -- all around nice guy, school nerd, philosopher. It is Todd who points out to him all the money he's not spending on cigarettes (since he can't smoke with a wired jaw!) or soda or candy. It is Todd who notices -- and verbalizes -- how everyone, including them, is being tricked into buying more, bigger, more, more, more! The "revolution" starts simply -- Josh refusing his cigarettes. Stepping away from the counter. Todd follows suit. Between the two, they carry this message to other teens in their neighborhood, and with the aid of an MTV-style TV network, R2Rev, the movement sweeps the country. Personally, I thought this book was well-written. Most of the characters were believable, the continual threat of backsliding into consumarism absolutely credible. My only problem with the book was that it became so obsessed with it's grassroots message that sometimes the story got lost. Since it *is* a YA book, I suppose Tom Matthews reasoned he had to state the moral of the story clearly, instead of couching it in symbolism like many adult books. But once I surfaced back into the story, I enjoyed the book again. There is only minor character development, believe it or not. Even Josh only undergoes the most minor of changes to his basic personality -- but that, in my mind, makes it all the more realistic. This is not a book with a fairy-tale ending. After all, these characters aren't just characters -- they're pieces of our own personality. The part of us that wants to fit in, the part of us that just wants stuff. The part of us that's tired and cynical and doesn't want to be tricked anymore. You know there's more to the story.... more happens after the final chapter. It's just up to us to figure out it out.
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