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How to Get Suspended and Influence People Mass Market Paperback – September 9, 2008

by Adam Selzer (Author)

9 customer reviews

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It all starts with an assignment. Leon's "gifted and talented" class has to make educational videos for the sixth and seventh graders. Leon originally chooses "sex ed" as his subject in the hopes of showing a flash of boob. But as time goes on, his project starts to mean something. He wants to tell the younger kids that puberty is tough, but what they're going through is normal.

After researching the avant-garde movement, Leon crafts his video in the style of Fellini: La Dolce Pubert. It's deeply disturbing yet comforting.

But when the gifted program's director sees it, she suspends Leon—and he finds himself at the center of a townwide debate over censorship. Who gets to decide how far is too far?

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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6–8—Thirteen-year-old Leon Noside (Edison spelled backwards) Harris has spent a lifetime hating the middle name his father gave him as an insult to Thomas Edison. Smart-mouthed and gifted, he uses his creative resources—a talent he inherited from parents who spend hours concocting their own inventions whether in the garage or the kitchen—to make an avant-garde sex-education video that tells kids that masturbation is normal. Leon is suspended, and the students stage a near riot, complete with "Free Leon Harris" signs. This isn't the first time that Mrs. Smollet, the program director for the gifted pool, has had negative encounters with her students, but it is the first time that Leon is a hero at school. The administration is challenged to sort out the real problem: Is it Leon, or Mrs. Smollet? This funny, fast-paced novel is filled with characters who epitomize the middle school experience, and it presents a lesson or two about free speech as well.—Pat Scales, formerly at South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities, Greenville
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Selzer's zany, edgy debut thumbs its nose at censorship and prudishness as its eighth-grade hero tries to make a "frank, honest, and artistic sex-ed video" for a peer-education project. Leon wants to avoid rehashing the staid diagrams and dramatizations typical of the genre. Inspired by his worldly friend and crush, Anna, who introduces him to avant-garde cinema, he creates a nonsensical pastiche of Great Masters nudes, symbolic images, and narrated sonnets about body changes and "whacking off." His creative triumph, followed by his suspension and the ensuing uproar, unfolds in a comic, first-person narrative, laden with sarcasm, occasional cussing ("bullshit"), and mostly abstract references to sex. Characters are over-the-top in this slapstick parable, and it all comes to a pointed end (lots of people see and admire the film, and a teacher with a religious agenda is ousted). Still, many creative young readers--perhaps especially those who, like Leon, identify with "miscreant kids who just happen to read books from the adult section in the library"--will appreciate the plot's outrageousness and applaud Leon's commitment to his quirky vision. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product details

Age Range: 12 and up
Grade Level: 7 and up
Mass Market Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: Laurel Leaf; Reprint edition (September 9, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0440421608
ISBN-13: 978-0440421603
Product Dimensions: 4.3 x 0.6 x 6.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,690,490 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2914 in Books > Teens > Literature & Fiction > Humorous
- #11375 in Books > Children's Books > Growing Up & Facts of Life > Friendship, Social Skills & School Life > School
- #28287 in Books > Teens > Literature & Fiction > Social & Family Issues

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Customer Reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars

5 star		67%
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3 star		11%
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Top Customer Reviews

Remember Junior High?

ByDavid Johnstonon February 19, 2007

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Adam Selzer clearly remembers what it's like to be in the "gifted" class in middle school -- and an outsider. The hero of "How to Get Suspended and Influence People," Leon Noside Harris, reminds the reader of the gifted kids they knew in their junior high days: smart-alecky, disheveled, ahead of their age, and out-of-step with the cool kids. And that's the way they liked it. These are the kids you used to describe by saying, "He's either going to be a great success or end up in jail."

Leon is supported at school by a gaggle of like-minded friends, and by teachers who want to lift him up and slap him down. At home, Leon's lovingly dysfunctional family will remind you of Bill Bryson's parents in "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid" (Selzer and Bryson both grew up in Des Moines, albeit 30 years apart -- was there something in the water there?).

Young readers will relate to Leon's efforts to "fight the power" and make La Dolce Pubert. Adults will laugh as they remember their junior high days -- or the junior high days they wish they had.

0Comment 4 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Good book

ByTeraLeeaon February 3, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I like book it good.
Grady
The book was kind of inappropriate but it was still good.
I suggest ages 14-15

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good

ByAmazon Customeron December 5, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

this a good book good everything i don't know why i did not read it sooner it is i guess averant

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Try it, you'll like it

ByMarion the Librarianon September 12, 2011

Format: Hardcover

An odd presentation of characters, and an interminable monologue by the self-proclaimed smartass protagonist may put off adult readers, but this book is aimed at middle-schoolers. It's worth the trek to see the story blossom into its intention: supporting freedom of speech, questioning censorship, and empowering students to find their voices. Leon Noside Harris was given his middle name (`Edison' spelled backwards) as an insult to the inventor, whom Leon's father claims "was a jerk who took credit for other people's work." Leon's mother delights in cooking the most awful recipes imaginable, and his father is an inventor, who has ideas for inventions that have already been patented. Leon's claim to fame is creating an avante garde movie for his gifted and talented class, and the subject is the normalcy of masturbation. He stands at odds with a particular teacher who opposes it on `moral' and possibly (her) religious grounds.

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Essence of smart-aleck middle-school boy

BySwank Ivyon August 25, 2014

Format: Hardcover

I thought this book was very readable and fun young adult book--my only criticism is that (like a lot of kids' books) the characters' dialogue was often more witty and well-constructed than you'd expect even adults' dialogue to be (which I found difficult to swallow despite the fact that they were supposed to be "gifted pool" kids--I was in the gifted program and while we had big vocabularies and more complex sentence structure sometimes, we by and large didn't talk quite like this). And sometimes I felt like the narration was aware that there was an audience reading (like, it "performs" for you sometimes). That said, I thought Leon's situation was amusing and funny and that Adam nailed the "middle-school boy" character very well with all its embarrassments, eagerness to be accepted as well as to appall others, and fun-loving yet "hoodlum-ish" qualities. And he had the balls to include concepts and phrases and words most books for that age group are afraid to cover--much like the protagonist handles taboo subjects and deals with it in his own way when it gets him in trouble. I definitely found it easy to read and look forward to picking up another one of his books.

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Quirky and Awesome

ByD. Abelon June 18, 2007

Format: Hardcover

Eighth-grader Leon Harris takes on an assignment to create an "educational" video and decides to make it artsy and avant-garde in order to spread the message that what pubescent kids are feeling is normal. And that goes double about masturbating. He thinks it'll change the world. One of his teachers thinks he's a Satan-worshipping immoral miscreant who should be expelled and thrown in jail. Suddenly the entire student body rallies around Leon and it becomes an issue of free speech and artsy subversion vs. what should and shouldn't be taught in public schools. It's hilarious and, if not totally realistic, at least very human.

I harbor perverse love for misfit adolescent main characters - adolescent either physically (Stephen Chbosky, The Perks Of Being A Wallflower) or emotionally (Mark Spitz, How Soon Is Never?) - and Leon is immature, smartassy and sassy, bless him, and they need to make more kids like him.

0Comment 2 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Courtesy of Teens Read Too

ByTeensReadTooon February 21, 2007

Format: Hardcover

Eighth-grader Leon has a project in his class for gifted and talented students. Each student must make his or her own educational video to show the lower classmen. What subject do you think a hormonal teenager will choose? Of course, sex education.

Despite his wanting to see pictures of naked people, Leon wants to show the kids that puberty is normal. Hair grows, things change, you have certain urges, and everything's like a big explosion. With his friend, Anna, Leon creates an avant-garde sex ed. video, which is informative, but kind of weird.

Before showing it to the lower classmen, Leon first debuts it to his teacher, Mrs. Smollet, who finds it immoral and disgusting. Naturally, she goes to the principal, who suspends Leon. During his suspension, the townspeople debate over Leon's sex education video. Is it too graphic for sixth and seventh graders? After this huge debate will Leon be allowed to show his video and come back to school, or be expelled forever?

Adam Selzer creates a funny and enjoyable book. The characters are well-written and defined. You'll enjoy this book and laugh throughout; this is a book you don't want to miss!

Reviewed by: Jeremey

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Most Recent Customer Reviews

Real issues are revealed in a novel about sexuality and censorship.

Adam Selzer's HOW TO GET SUSPENDED AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE tells of a class project where a teen's class is chosen to make educational videos for younger grades.Read more

Published on October 6, 2007 by Midwest Book Review

Leon Rules!

The literary world has a new hero! Leon Noside Harris is an amusing and clever character to follow in Adam Selzer's book, "How To Get Suspended and Influence People".Read more

Published on February 17, 2007 by Kelly Conklin

English United States

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