Customer Reviews

Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer

5 star:		(71)
4 star:		(51)
3 star:		(29)
2 star:		(34)
1 star:		(32)

 

 

I have worked in a middle school library for 19 years and I think this book would be a hard sell. There is not enough action and at times it felt like a lecture on law. The ending was flat. Grisham should read the competition for this age group. The late Robert Parker (Chasing The Bear, The Boxer and the Spy and The Edenville Owls)did a great job on his three titles for YA readers - great for reluctant male readers. Andy McNab - Traitor, Robert Muchamore - The Recruit, Anthony Horowitz - Gatekeepers Series, Jack Higgins - Surefire and David Gilman - Devil's Breath, know how to take the kids to an intensity in a storyline that rivals video games. Do some summer reading Mr. Grisham.

I was happy to learn that best-selling author John Grisham was entering the youth market with Theodore Boone Kid Lawyer, the first of a planned series. I read and enjoyed a few of his earlier books some years back and knew he was capable of telling a compelling story. Because I think children and young adults deserve great storytelling (how else will we instill a love of reading in them?), I was looking forward to Grisham's contribution.

Unfortunately, it didn't live up to my expectations. Not only was it not great, it wasn't even particularly good.

Thirteen year old Theodore Boone wants to be a lawyer - or perhaps a judge - he hasn't quite decided yet. He loves to hang out at the courthouse and sit in on trials whenever he can. He knows most of the legal types about town - judges, clerks, bailiffs, etc. and they all know him by name. At school, classmates approach him with their troubles and he gives them legal advice. When one of those classmates takes Theo aside and tells him that his cousin may be an important witness to a murder currently being tried before Theo's friend, Judge Gantry, Theo finds himself involved.

It's a good premise. But Theodore Boone Kid Lawyer stumbles as soon as it steps up to the plate. For the first 60 pages of the 260 page novel, Theo plods from place to place having (mostly) meaningless and (mostly) uninteresting conversations with (mostly) unimportant-to-the-plot characters. It's an awkward beginning to what I had believed would be a legal thriller, kid style.

And while the pace did pick up a bit around that 60 page mark when we began to learn details of the murder, the expected thrills never materialized. Instead it was one conversation after another that moved the plot forward to the completely predictable (and vaguely unsatisfying) conclusion. Along the way, there was no mystery, very little action or suspense and almost no humor whatsoever to punch the story up and keep us turning the pages.

To top it off, I didn't find Theo a particularly engaging character. He's nice enough, but because he comes across as rather unrealistically perfect, it's tough to warm up to him. There were a number of instances as well where I felt his thoughts and observations of others held tones of condescension - not an attractive trait, especially in a young teen.

My rating is 2.5 stars. For me, Theodore Boone Kid Lawyer hovered someplace between "It was okay" and "I didn't like it". Normally I round up because I want to give the author the benefit of the doubt. But this is John Grisham, for pete's sake. He should have hit it out of the park. Instead, he bunted.

I bought this book for my 14-year-old as a summer reading book. I did read it first so I could know what he was talking about while giving me his daily chapter summery. I very much enjoyed it!

I wouldn't recommend it for a non-avid reader less than about 10 years old, though. It is very well written, but it is not childishly written, if you know what I mean. This is no Magic Treehouse book. I reads exactly like any other John Grisham novel, except is is clearly geared for middle school aged kids.

That being said, my 14-year old has already read the first 2 chapters and is getting sucked into it despite his every intention to hate any book that isn't a graphic novel.

Disappointing... on several levels...

When I first heard Grisham was doing a YA novel, I thought here's a chance to have a riveting crime fiction tale from one of the best in the page-turner business...

Here's what I found:

1. 100 pages to get to any riveting drama... he's lost 98% of my students by then... it does get interesting for about 80-100 pages with a lot of promise but fizzle...

2. Dated characters... Theodore reads like a Encyclopedia Brown impersonation... since when do 13 year olds not date... the two female characters are very brief walkon stereotypes... the witness ditto...

3. After finally getting to the meat of the story, nothing happens... the ending is beyond anticlimactic, offers no real resolution and clearly just setting up a sequel... there is no danger... there is barely the tiniest hint of danger... the book just ends...

So will I be purchasing this book for our media center? No. Disappointed.

Picked up this book in the bookshop, read a couple of pages, and was engaged. Being a new release it still full price, but I really wanted to read on so, seeing as it was a Grisham novel, I assumed it would be money well spent (was sadly mistaken)! The book started off well and continued to build (if somewhat slowly) to a point where the main character (a child) needs to involve older & wiser members of his family. From this point on the story becomes pretty ordinary and everyday - I'd even say boring. There was a menacing character who lurked around the edges of the story, but he never really became anyone of consequence. As I read the final page I actually thought that I must have bought an unfinished copy of the book! "It must be a mis-print", I thought. But no, It was not! I got on the web to check how many chapters were supposed to be in the book only to find lots of other readers were also left bewildered and dis-satisfied by the sudden end. Can't believe I paid full price. Bummer! Will make sure I only buy cheap 2nd hand Grishams from now on!

I don't get it. Really, I don't. There's no action, nothing particularly interesting happens, there are strange diversions into Animal Court and for some reason, Grisham thinks 13 year old boys wouldn't admit to having girlfriends.

Also, this kid watches Perry Mason nightly and can explain the complexities of bankruptcy law, but randomly doesn't know what being held in contempt of court might mean.

The story is riddled with inconsistencies that you wouldn't notice if the story wasn't plodding on at a snail's pace with telling where you should be showing and showing what could've been told--including several repeated conversations where the same thing is explained over and over again.

It was such an interesting premise. A kid lawyer and Grisham set up some other boys in the class (oh, btw, this school isn't coed--girls and boys go to the same school but do not attend the same classes. What? Why? There's no valid plot reason for this. Grisham should've considered another century to set this story in) as being inventive and having their own talents that would've made a great kid gang, but alas. We are left with Theodore, legal sue.

This book is depressingly bad. If you want kids to stop reading, this is the book to help them along that path.

If ever there was a blatant setup for a sequel, this was it. It is only half a book! Grisham has sacrificed many of the basic tenets of novel composition by leaving a substantial number of the issues literally hanging.

A cheap and chintzy device if ever there was one.

I'm betting that the entire novel is already written, and that the money-grubbing publisher enjoined a willing editor to direct Grisham to find a separation point that was not too obvious.

Well, it was obvious to me, and I will certainly not be buying the inevitable sequel on principle.

If on the off-chance I am mistaken and this really was the completed story, then shame on Grisham for not doing a thorough job!

Shoddy doings either way.

This book is such a disappointment!
Everything that John Grisham gives us in his adult fiction (great pacing, believable characters, realistic dialogue) is missing here. The dialogue especially made me wince. When a friend thanks Theo (the 13 year old protagonist) for a favor, he responds, "My pleasure, Sandy. And if I can help again, just let me know."
Really! Do you know ANY 13 year olds who speak like that?
Even more annoying is that the book's plot is deliberately left unresolved. Obviously this is the first book in a series, and for that we can all blame Dutton Children's Books. They could have told John Grisham that he just doesn't have an ear for this genre, but instead they went for the money.
For grades 7/8 and up, if you want a well-written, well-crafted young adult novel about the legal profession, skip this book entirely and read Walter Dean Myer's book, "Monster" instead.

I whipped through this book in about 24 hours after getting hooked by Amazon when I was able to read the 1st chapter for free. I ordered the book immediately and I am happy to say that the rest of the book was just as good as the 1st chapter. It was a definite page turner, although the ending left me a little quizzical and wanting more.

I am hopeful that Mr. Grisham will decided to write a whole series of books with Theodore Boone as his protagonist because I loved the character and thought that his use of technology was blended in at just the right pace.

Bravo, Mr. Grisham! Highly recommended.

In the year 2000, John Grisham did something different. He wrote a novel that was NOT about lawyers. Well, at least it was different for him. The book was originally published in serial form in the Oxford American literary magazine. Subsequently, Doubleday released the book version of A Painted House in January 2001. The author has since released other non-lawyerly stories (Skipping Christmas, also Doubleday 2001; Bleachers, Doubleday 2003; and Playing for Pizza, Doubleday 2007). Now he is again trying something new. This time he is entering the juvenile market--albeit with a lawyer novel.


Theo Boone is the thirteen-year-old son of two lawyers--his father, a real estate lawyer, and his mother a successful divorce attorney who only represents the wife. He loves court and all the drama therein. He even loves to watch old Perry Mason reruns with his parents. His dream vacillates between being a high-profile courtroom lawyer and becoming a powerful judge in that same courtroom. In his eighth-grade class, he is the go-to guy for all problems involving the law (from escaped and impounded dogs to arrested brothers). In the midst of the biggest murder trial to hit the town of Strattenburg, Theo finds himself in possession of the only evidence to guide justice. And he's promised not to tell anyone.


This is a fast-paced novel which is a great introduction to "lawyer fiction" for most readers. Appealing about this book is the moving story with rich characters and the absence of foul language and sex scenes that permeate courtroom dramas aimed at an older audience. You can almost overlook the main drawback--scenes that seem to drop a line or two, requiring the reader to fill in a bigger gap than he should.


For this excellent effort in introducing his writing to younger audiences, I can award Grisham a solid four out of five reading glasses.


--Benjamin Potter, June 23, 2010