Tribute to Another Dead Rock Star [Hardcover]

Randy Powell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 20, 1999

Grady is skateboarding toward a major decision

No longer able to live with his grandmother, fifteen-year-old Grady Grennan has to find a new address. one option is to move in with his mentally disabled half brother, Louie, in Seattle. But that poses a problem: Louie's adoptive mother, Vickie, and Grady are about as compatible as Mozart and heavy metal.

Nevertheless, Grady's testing the waters. He's in Seattle for a concert tribute to his and Louie's mother, a grunge rock icon who died three years ago. Grady has been invited to speak at the tribute, but what is he supposed to say to thousands of adoring fans about a mother who abandoned her sons in favor of a musical career?

Both humorous and deeply moving, Tribute to Another Dead Rock Star poses challenging, provocative questions to all sorts of readers -- cynics, liberals, slackers, and rock stars included.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Grady Grennan is finding out that it's pretty hard to get over your mother's death when you hear her voice every time you switch on the radio. Besides being Grady's mom, Debbie Grennan was also a famous heavy-metal rock star. Since her drug overdose, Grady has tried to fill the hole she left in his life with everything from skateboarding to spending more time with his mentally disabled brother, Louie. But he can't quite seem to master the skateboard, and his time with Louie is often spoiled by the vicious arguments he has with Louie's stepmother, Vickie. Now the third anniversary of his mother's death is approaching, and Grady has been invited to a tribute concert in her honor. The concert weekend brings Grady's feelings to a head, and he must decide if he's going to be a real brother to Louie (and a part of Vickie's family) or remain just another long-haired slacker--the son of a dead rock star.

Through Grady's conflicted feelings for Louie, author Randy Powell successfully captures the struggle between selfishness and generosity that constantly rages in the teen psyche. "I can't imagine... not seeing Louie for a whole year. On the other hand, I can't imagine living in the same house with the guy, either." Grady's disagreements with Vickie over everything from music to religion crackle with a parent-child tension that teens will immediately find familiar and amusing. With the invention of Grady Grennan, Powell has given young adult literature a thoughtful new underdog--with the smart mouth of Rats Saw God's Steve York and the soul of The Outsiders's Ponyboy Curtis. (Ages 12 and older) --Jennifer Hubert

From Publishers Weekly

Powell (Dean Duffy; The Whistling Toilets) poses some provocative questions in this unglamorized, introspective look at the fringes of the rock-star scene. Grady, the 15-year-old narrator, returns to his hometown of Seattle three years after the death of his mother, famous hard-rocker Debbie Grennan, to speak at a concert performed in her memory. While there, he stays with his mentally handicapped half-brother, Louie, and Louie's born-again-Christian family. The half-brothers' artless conversations allow Grady time to reflect on Debbie's rise to fame as well as her self-destructive behavior. From beginning to end, the novel spans only three days; still, the author manages to skillfully encapsulate the personalities of the people and events that have shaped the protagonist. Acutely aware of how his presence causes tension in Louie's household, Grady nonetheless feels a form of acceptance and love from them that his own mother was unable to give. The author thoughtfully and convincingly works out Grady's dilemma about his future (weighing whether to move in with Louie's family, attend school in Europe or become a stagehand for a rock band) as he comes to terms with his mother's strengths and failings ("No, she was no great person. And yet she wasn't the devil, either"). Through sharply defined characters and lively, often humorous dialogue, Powell allows readers to comfortably examine some serious issues. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR); 1st edition (April 20, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374377480
• ISBN-13: 978-0374377489
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,144,158 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What if your parents were Janis Joplin or Kurt Cobain?, July 30, 2000

By 

Stephen Richmond "Librarian/Teacher/Reader an... (Newton, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tribute to Another Dead Rock Star (Hardcover)

In the great recent tradition of jarringly real young adult fiction from the likes of Bruce Brooks and Chris Crutcher, comes Randy Powell. Winning kudos from such taciturn review sources as Kirkus and high praise from the American Library Association for his earlier works Dean Duffy, The Whistling Toilets, and Is Kissing a Girl Who Smokes Like Licking an Ashtray?, Powell delivers a page-turning speed read with well-developed and memorable characters that break and mend hearts, readers' and each others'. Grady Grennan is the son of Debbie Grennan, the titular dead rock star --- something along the lines of a cross between Janis Joplin and Kurt Cobain. There's to be a tribute to dead and inattentive Mom and Grady is to have a role in that, but he's not sure he wants it. There's also his mentally retarded half-stepbrother (the relationships in this book are complicated and mostly dysfuctional, but honestly portrayed) named Louie, one of most endearing of the cast, and certainly the frankest, unsentimental portrayal of retardation this reader has yet seen. Vickie, the wife of Louie's father, is amazingly frustrating and is without doubt, one of the most interesting stepmothers since Cinderella's; her personal revelation in the closing pages of the book make it easily the most satisfying young adult book I've read this year. Powell is quickly becoming a writer of note for this generation of young people. Highly recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another satisfying read from Powell, May 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Tribute to Another Dead Rock Star (Hardcover)

Hardcore skater Grady isn't thrilled with life after his rock-star mom overdosed a year ago, now he has to live with his grandmother who wants to tour the country with her new boyfriend in a Winnebago. Grady decides to visit other relatives, and his half-brother Louie in the pacific northwest...and to top it all off, mom's old band wants to get together and have a tribute concert and they want Grady to open the show with a few words...but all Grady can do is picture his absent mom and her final moments: choking on her own vomit.

If you liked this book, try _Dean Duffy_, a great read about finding your little place in the world.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Human side of the rock music scene, March 5, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Tribute to Another Dead Rock Star (Hardcover)

Many people would admire Grady, having a world-famous rock star for a mom. But when she dies of a drug overdose, Grady doesn't know where he belongs. His stepmother is very religious, and she and Grady fight all the time. Plus, he loves his mentally disabled brother Louie, but Louie also drives him crazy sometimes. I thought Grady was a great character, just like a real guy who missed his dead mother. I liked him and wanted everything to work out for him. It's too bad the book's cover is so"cartoony" that it doesn't give an accurate picture of how realistic the book is. I liked the look into the rock music scene and how that life can affect real people.