Accelerated: A Novel

By Bronwen Hruska

A “witty, piercingly relevant” novel of a father and son that “perfectly captures the prep school milieu” of NYC and over-medicated children (Publishers Weekly).

Every afternoon Sean Benning picks up his son, Toby, on the marble steps that lead into the prestigious Bradley School. Everything at Bradley is accelerated—3rd graders read at the 6th grade level, they have labs and facilities to rival most universities, and the chess champions are the bullies. A single dad and struggling artist, Sean sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the power-soccer-mom cliques and ladies-who-lunch that congregate on the steps every afternoon. But at least Toby is thriving and getting the best education money can buy. Or is he?
When Sean starts getting pressure from the school to put Toby on medication for ADD, something smells fishy, and it isn’t the caviar that was served at last week’s PTA meeting. Toby’s “issues” in school seem, to Sean, to be nothing more than normal behavior for an eight-year-old boy. But maybe Sean just isn’t seeing things clearly, which has been harder and harder to do since Toby’s new teacher, Jess, started at Bradley. And the school has Toby’s best interests at heart, right? But what happens when the pressure to not just keep up, but to exceed, takes hold? When things take a tragic turn, Sean realizes that the price of this accelerated life is higher than he could have ever imagined. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pegasus Books
• Release date: Oct 2, 2012
• ISBN: 9781453271469

Bronwen Hruska

Bronwen Hruska, the publisher of Soho Press, has worked as a journalist and screenwriter for twenty years. Her articles have appeared in New York Times, Los Angeles Times, More Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Cosmopolitan, Village Voice, and San Francisco Chronicle. She has sold an original screenplay to Columbia Pictures and an original television pilots to NBC, CBS, Lifetime, and Sony television. She lives in Manhattan with her two sons.

Reviews for Accelerated

[bandpmom-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was an advanced reader copy that I won on Good reads. Good book with great story and characters. I'm thankful to not have put my child in such a school. It is unbelievable that schools have this much power but when the first boy died I would have taken my child out of the school immediately, regardless of who was paying for it. The truth about ADD and the drug industry was well-told and honest.

[judylou_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sean Benning has recently become a single father to 8 year old Toby. Toby’s mother has left them after struggling with mental health issues. Sean is an artist who has a “day job” at a gossip magazine where he writes uninspiring stories about the stars. Toby attends the prestigious Bradley School, one of Manhattan’s top private schools thanks to his maternal grandparents, who pay the exorbitant fees. Sean does not quite fit in with the other parents. They are high flyers with powerful jobs or highly motivated gym attendees and women-who-lunch who are not quite sure how to include him.Toby appears happy to be at the school; he enjoys his friends and likes his new teacher, until his best friend is discovered unconscious on the school steps. The school community is told he suffered as a result of a peanut allergy, but Sean and Toby’s teacher are suspicious. When the school authorities begin to pressure Sean into seeking help for Toby’s apparent ADD, Sean is confused and apprehensive. We live in an easy fix society where medication is all too easy to come by. What is to stop the educators of our young children from pressuring parents to force conformity in children through the use of medication? When children are passive, perhaps they are easier to teach and perhaps it is easier to achieve higher, better and more impressive outcomes. The accelerated children at Hruska’s Bradley School definitely showed impressive results. But at what cost?

[booksintheburbs · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Let me be the first to admit-the book cover does not do the book justice! It is a little bland looking and doesn’t scream, “read me!”. I’ve had this book on my review list and I wasn’t rushing to read it because it just wasn’t enticing. Well, this is one of those books that holds the saying true, “don’t just a book by it’s cover”.This book covers so many issues that are relevant to today’s times with families and children. Once I started reading the book, I couldn’t stop. It was fast paced and asks parents the question, “is this really in the best interest of my child?”. Sean is a single dad and helps Toby adjust to the fact that his mom just leaves them one day. Trying to bring some normalcy to the home, Sean works two jobs while being as present a father he can be. However, he is faced with the issue of being told by the school psychologist that Toby is exhibiting ADD tendencies. With secrets that go far beyond the walls of the Bradley School, Sean is thrust into a situation that can mean life/death for his son Toby. Uncovering these secrets can bring problems for Toby and Sean, and Sean has to decide what is truly best for his son. In addition to all of that, Sean is also having to deal with the issues of being a single parent, helping his son adjust to an absent mother, and help his son deal with the loss of a friend.The book raises issues surrounding the generation of overmedicated children, over diagnosed children, and wanting our children to be successful. The rat race of finding the best schools, having our children in the best programs, setting them up for the best colleges….all of that can get overwhelming and very competitive…which this book addresses and the downside of what can happen. It’s a book that I wish I could have other parents read, simply because our children are so stressed and pressured to succeed that parents can lose out on precious bonding moments with their children.The author does a remarkable job of covering so many real life issues in a compact book. Overall, this is an excellent read and I have added this to my favorites list!

[suefernandez · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book hit close to home for me, and if you're a parent, grandparent, or just want to know what schools are really like today...read this!While it's set as a fictional novel, with lots of suspense and humor, it's something that occurs (hopefully not to a criminal level) in many schools now.Boys squirm, young girls daydream...that's developing children folks.It's much easier for children to sit calmly and quietly in their seats, in the crowded classrooms and ADHD gives a perfect excuse to medicate them. I know medication has helped many, I know it's not the devil...but I also know I felt our daughter was gently forced onto them for a short period. We switched to a less "National Blue Ribbon" focused school, which focused on dyslexia, which she has, and interesting...she's focused and doesn't need medication.In this novel, the young boy is sent to a tony New York private school thanks to his grandparents funding...as he struggles a bit, his dad has to make the tough decision regarding whether to medicate or not. While he tried to follow his heart, head and research, he felt pushed into a decision, and swayed by physician and educator input.It takes a tragedy to get this out in the open.It also has interesting subplots of a depressed mom leaving the home, new relationships, etc.Stick with it through the first chapter or so...I almost thought is was going another way and turned away from it. Once you get through that....it's a different book, and you'll be happy you stuck with it. It will make you think...whether you've been through this or not. (I ONLY gave it a 4.5 because of that...otherwise it's 5 all the way!)