Chicken Boy

by Francis O’Roark Dowell

Seventh-grade narrator Tobin lives on a highway next to a garage in Raleigh, North Carolina with his father, two brothers, and sister, whom the locals consider troublemakers.. His mother died when he was seven and his eccentric "granny," blames his father and calls him a "good for nothing." Tobin is a loner who feels alienated from his classmates, whom he calls a bunch of "spitwads," "fart blowers," "jugheads," and "bean snorters." Life seems useless until he meets Henry and his brother Harrison, who introduce Tobin to the fascinations of raising chickens .

by KGJ