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When he was seven, Charlie Porter never intended to become the world's youngest published author. He just wanted his father to stop crying. So he told him a story about a talking beetle - a dumb little story his mother made up to make him feel better. (That was before she left and feeling "better" became impossible.) But Charlie's story not only made his father stop crying. It made him start planning. The story became a book, and then it became school events and book festivals, and a beetle costume, and a catchphrase - "I was born to write!"
Because of the story, Charlie stayed seven until he was ten. And then it all ended. Or it should have. Now Charlie is eighteen, and the beetles still haunt his dreams. The childhood he never really had is about to end... but there's still a chance to have a story of his own. Beetle Boy is a novel of a broken family, the long shadow of neglect, and the light of small kindnesses.
"Starred Review. Innovative use of type brings an immediacy to Charlie's struggles as he slowly looks the truth - and his brother's - squarely in the face. Demanding and riveting." - Kirkus
"Starred Review. A potent story about the power that the past exerts on the present. Ages 13–18." - Publishers Weekly
"Many of the lessons and ideas that can be taken away from this text would be powerful discussion fodder for high school students. Mature language and sexual situations make this most appropriate for older teens." - School Library Journal
This information about Beetle Boy was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Margaret Willey has been writing for many years in many different genres. All of her books and stories come from a personal place, either something that happened to her or something she witnessed at close range. Like her previous novel from Carolrhoda Lab, Four Secrets (2012), Beetle Boy is about bullying, but a different kind of bullying - the kind inflicted on children by their parents. Beetle Boywas inspired by a real boy who was completely under his father's control and trying to make the best of it until he could escape. Margaret lives in Grand Haven with her husband Richard Joanisse, and she is currently working on a new novel and a collection of essays about her childhood in Michigan.
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