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Born To Rock (2006)

Born to Rock (2006)

Book Info

Author
Genre
Rating
3.65 of 5 Votes: 3
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ISBN
0786809205 (ISBN13: 9780786809202)
Language
English
Publisher
disney-hyperion

About book Born To Rock (2006)

This book takes a big turn from a couple chapters in. The main character thinks his life is normal and fine until he finds out his actual father is a rock n roll king. One of the quotes in the book is "McMurphy" which describes Leo's (the main character) inner anger and rage. He does not know where these random outburts come from when he gets too mad. It is later proved that his real father is the rock n roll guy where he got McMurphy from. The author uses a lot of humor in this book which I think is good because it's easy and more fun to read a book that you can relate to by funny remarks the characters make. "I did the scissor kick into the splits all the time back in the day"! Is what one of the band members said after being sent to the hospital for getting injured after doing this move. It made me laugh a little bit because I could clearly picture in my mind this big rock star guitar player thinking he was still 25 when he's nearly 40. The author also uses first person to make the reader more related to Leo as the story goes on, showing that everything that is going on isn't in a different prespective and it's as if it's happening right in front of you. The chapters are evenly spread out with quite a bit of information in each. The chapters start off normally with an exciting combination of words to get the reader more interested in reading on. The words have nice sized spaces to my liking, I don't really favor the scrunched typing and a bunch of words on each page; that's why I really like how this book is printed. The font is a little scruffy looking, as like the title shows, which gives the feeling of the rock band all hardcore and what not.

I have to hand it to Gordon Korman. His books almost always deal with fairly improbable plots (improbably at least to adult readers of his YA fiction), and yet he always creates characters and a story that you care about. Leo Carraway is a pretty normal graduating high school senior (other than being a Young Republican whose best friend is a goth girl), who lives with his pretty normal parents (except when his mother gets nervous and goes into a jigsaw puzzling frenzy), and who is convinced he has a renegade gene running around inside hime (which, in a way, he actually does). A few years earlier Leo discovered his dad is not his biological father. Instead Leo is the result of a one night stand his mother had with the the best-known punk rocker of the 80s, a guy who goes by the name King Maggott. Leo is convinced that he has to keep a tight rein on himself or this rogue DNA will cause him to do something wild and destructive. (Yeah right, like we know that's going to work.) When circumstances cause Leo to lose his scholarship to Harvard, he decides it's finally time to cash in on his famous father. Fortunatey said FF is putting on a reunion tour, and when Leo announces to the world that he is King's son what's a punk rocker to do but accept the kid and take him on tour with him. Needless to say Leo learns a lot about his bio-dad, the world of punk rock, and himself. While I don't think this is one of Korman's best books, I couldn't help smiling at the end.

Do You like book Born To Rock (2006)?

3.5 stars.Born to Rock doesn't really aspire to be anything more than lightweight, fast-paced entertainment, but I can respect that when it does it so well. Leo Caraway – Young Republican and future Harvard student – discovers that A) his scholarship is being revoked, and B) he's likely the son of King Maggot, frontman for Purge, one of the best of the early-80s punk bands. After confronting King, Leo signs on to roadie for the band during their reunion tour, expecting at some point to hit his dad up for Harvard tuition money.What follows is, at heart, a fish out of water story as straitlaced Leo attempts to survive the world of a punk rock band. Still, the book ends up saying some important things about family, relationships, and identity, and it's one of the more music-savvy Young Adult novels I've read (right up there with Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park. A lot of books that strive for musical authenticity get the details wrong, but author Gordon Korman does a nice job of subtly whitewashing the band's backstage antics for a younger audience while getting the gist of the antics across.The book won't change your life, but it will offer a pleasant diversion for the few hours it takes to read it.
—Rob

I wasn’t too sure about this one at first, but after I got into it, I couldn’t put it down. Growing up in the 80’s (yes, I actually lived the punk era) made this an interesting book to read. You will like it, thought, because it is well-written and has lots of action in the behind the scenes look at a punk/rock-n-roll lifestyle. Summary:Leo Caraway leads a charmed life as a fairly straight-laced Young Republican and A-student headed for Harvard on a scholarship. But then he finds out that his biological father is none other than Marion X. McMurphy (aka King Maggot), lead singer of the wildly popular punk band Purge. As Leo expects, this shocking bit of information brings with it some bad karma, and a misunderstanding costs him his Harvard scholarship. Only one out-there option makes sense at this point: Leo will work as a roadie for Purge, and get his father to cough up the tuition money. But life on a rock tour is even freakier than Leo imagined, and the truth he learns about dear old dad is freakiest of all.
—Kerri

The book I am reviewing is Born To Rock, by Gordon Korman. This book is narrated by the main character, Leo, who is a senior in high school. The main plot of the story takes off when Leo learns his father is the lead singer of a legendary rock band from the 80’s called “Purge”. “Potbellies and receding Mohawks notwithstanding, they were still the angriest band in America, capable of raising a roof in a place that didn’t even have one.”(Korman).The author wastes no time on moving through the plot, and keeping the reader engaged. This book was defiantly directed towards teens because they can best relate to the characters in the story, and to some of the problems. The character I can mostly relate to has to be Melinda. I relate to her because I used to be like her and I went through some very similar transitions. The author was defiantly trying to purvey an arrangement of messages when he wrote this book. I believe that one of the main messages purveyed is; even when you think no one cares about you, the most unlikely person shows you that they do. I enjoyed this book very much; I found it humorous and engaging. I also enjoyed many of the puns made and the twist in the end which did bring the story line together. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys comedy and rock music. I give this book five stars.
—Brittiney

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