High Before Homeroom
by Maya Sloan

    HIGH BEFORE HOMEROOM by Maya Sloan
    Category:  Contemporary
    Age Recommendation:  Grades 9+
    Release Date:  6/22/10
    Publisher:  Gallery Books/Pocket
    Reviewed by:  Angie Fisher
    Rating:  5 Stars


    Doug Schaffer is a sixteen-year-old self-proclaimed loser, although no one notices him enough to care.  

    When he falls for a girl at the mall he works at, he realizes the only way she’ll ever pay attention to him is if he
    becomes a “bad boy.”  His plan?  Become a meth addict, complete with the drama of rehab and returning with a
    reputation.  What wasn’t in his plan was the return of his formerly perfect brother, who was injured in Iraq and
    formed his own addictions.  

    What follows is Doug's sad, often humorous journey, albeit researched, into a life of drugs that he never fully
    embraces, but sucks him in nonetheless.

    HIGH BEFORE HOMEROOM is a coming-of-age novel that, like life, isn’t always easy to read, but is a very
    real depiction of the lengths teens will go to be accepted, regardless of the casualties they leave in their wake.

    Maya Sloan may well be the most realistic voice to hit the young adult genre since Chris Crutcher, and I, for one,
    will certainly be following her rise to fame.