Back

By Norah McClintock

Jojo's back, released from jail, and people are tense and afraid all over again. They wonder if his friends will start showing up again. They wonder if they'll be walking down the street one day and they'll run into Jojo and Jojo will give them attitude or shove them around, just for fun. Jojo's friends have a way of making it hard--really hard--on people who decide to press charges against Jojo. Those people just wish Jojo would go away and never come back. Then there are the people who have hate in their hearts. These people wish something bad would happen to Jojo. Something really bad. Ardell Withrow is one of those people.

Also available in Spanish.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
• Release date: Apr 1, 2009
• ISBN: 9781554695713

Norah McClintock

Norah McClintock won the Crime Writers of Canada's Arthur Ellis Award for crime fiction for young people five times. She wrote more than sixty YA novels, including contributions to Seven (the series), the Seven Sequels and the Secrets series.

Book preview

Chapter One

It’s summer and I’m sidelined with a broken ankle. I’m thinking I’m in for the most boring summer of my life until the word gets around that Jojo Benn is coming back home to live with his mother. Everyone knows he’s coming back a few days before he actually shows up because his mother tells Megan Dalia’s mom. Megan’s mom immediately tells everyone else, even though she says she doesn’t blame Jojo’s mother for what he did. My mother has a different opinion. She says Jojo’s mother was always too soft on him. She says Jojo would have turned out differently if he had been taken in hand.

Jojo is twenty when he comes back. While we wait, we all wonder if he will show up in a taxi or if maybe one of his old friends, who haven’t been around much while Jojo has been away, will drive him up to his mother’s front door.

But he doesn’t arrive in a taxi or a car. Instead, a city bus slides to a stop at the end of the street, and Jojo gets off. He’s carrying a suitcase. He’s taller than anyone remembers. He’s bulkier too. Some people say it’s from all the bad food he probably ate while he was locked up. Other people say they heard that guys work out in there, and sure enough, when Jojo walks past my house carrying his suitcase, I see muscles on his arms that I never saw before.

Jojo doesn’t look at anyone, but everyone sure looks at him. He walks up to the front door of his mother’s house and rings the bell. Someone opens the door, and he goes inside. After that—only after that— people come off their porches and into the street and start talking.

There are a lot of people who can’t believe that Jojo has had the nerve to come back to our neighborhood. There are more people who don’t want him around. Things haven’t exactly been peaceful since he went away. Things are never peaceful in my neighborhood. But at least people haven’t worried about Jojo for the past two years.

I know Jojo, but I don’t know him well. He lives in the same row of houses that I live in. His mother is our next-door neighbor. Jojo is nearly four years older than me, so we never hung out together. But I used to see him out in his backyard sometimes when the weather was nice, making some food on the barbecue or sitting in the sun or fooling around with some of his friends. Sometimes he would be talking to his mother who, it would surprise a lot of people to know, he always talked nice to. Because I saw him like that and other people didn’t, I could see that sometimes he seemed like just a regular person. But then he’d get out on the street with his friends, and he’d do bad things—hurt people or humiliate them or take their stuff. Everyone was glad when he went away. Everyone except his mother.

Now he’s back, and people are tense and afraid. They wonder if his friends will start showing up again. They wonder if they’ll be walking down the street one day and they’ll run into Jojo and he will give them attitude or shove them around, just for fun. They wonder if he’ll show up in their stores or their restaurants and take stuff and tell them, Go ahead, call the cops, which a lot of them are afraid to do (Jojo always seems to know which ones are afraid). Jojo’s friends have a way of making it hard—really hard—on people who decide to press charges against Jojo. Those people just wish Jojo would go away and never come back.

Then there are the people who have hate in their hearts. Those people wish something bad would happen to Jojo. Something really bad.

Ardell Withrow is one of those people.

Chapter Two

Ardell Withrow’s brother Eden is the reason Jojo got sent away. Eden is one year older than Ardell. He is—was—an okay guy. He graduated high school and was about to do something that no one else in his family had ever

Reviews for Back

[angie7patterson · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

McClintock, Norah. Back. Custer, WA: Orca Book Publishers, 2009.Characters: the narrator (remains nameless throughout the story); Jojo; Shana; Ardell; Jojo’s mother; Ardell’s mother and fatherSetting: Unspecified urban/working class neighborhood somewhere in the United StatesTheme: Crime drama, Genre: Young adult fiction; hi-lowGolden Quote: “…there are the people who have hate in their hearts. These people wish something bad would happen to Jojo. Something really bad. Ardell Withrow is one of those people.Summary: After serving time for a violent crime, Jojo returns to the neighborhood and tries to take his life back.Audience: reading level: 4th; age range level: 9th grade and up Curriculum ties: Anticipatory Set: Read chapter 1 to students and ask them to make a list of facts about the characters, the setting and the situation. Ask students to make a prediction log, which they will use throughout the reading of the book. On one side of the log, have students make predictions about what could happen based on the facts. On the other side, ask students to provide rationales for each of their predictions. As students continue reading the novel, have them make additional entries in their prediction log.Connecting to the World—Writing and Research Ideas • The narrator makes a wise observation in chapter 2: “Ardell has hate in his heart, and hate takes the fear out of people and replaces it with a thirst for vengeance.” Ask students to think of a time in their lives when they have either witnessed this truth personally or read about it in a news report. Ask students to write a one-page summary of the event to share with the class. Post summaries around the room.• In chapter 5, Eden’s father suggests that the family remove life support and allow Eden to try to live without the machinery that is keeping him alive. Eden has been in a coma for over two years and has no brain activity. The issue is who has the right to decide to remove life support from comatose patients? Of great concern in society today, this question has been brought to public attention by the news media in recent years. Divide the class into groups, and have students research and debate the following topic: “Family members should have the right to decide whether or not to remove a loved one from life support.” Ask a panel of administrators, the librarian and the counselor to judge the debates.Connecting to the Text—Elements of the NovelSettingThe place and time of this story is important to the action of the story. Ask students to determine the setting and write a justification for their decisions about when and where this story occurs, explaining why the setting is key to the story.IronyThe reader knows what JoJo is doing to help his mother; the reader sees that JoJo is a changed man. At the end of chapter 12, the narrator’s mother states, “But he’s making up for it now, without anyone watching him, without anyone knowing.” Ask students to define dramatic irony and to find examples throughout the novel of what the narrator and readers know that Ardell and the community do not know. Have students select one example and create a cartoon strip illustrating the irony.ConflictThe conflict between JoJo and Ardell moves the story forward, and Shana adds interest. How does the phrase “an eye for an eye” apply to these three characters, as well as to Benjamin and Eden? Ask students to draw an illustrated web, making the connections and showing the depth of conflict. Have students add pictures, symbolic representations and elements of color to convey the conflicts.Point of ViewThe story is told through the voice of a narrator, reporting the events as they happen, interjecting her emotions and opinions about what is taking place. The reader does not ever truly know what JoJo thinks or feels. Occasionally, the reader hears what Shana and Ardell say, but not the emotions they feel or what they think. Ask students to select one of these three characters and, with a partner, choose a scene in which they interact. Have them rewrite the dialogue from that character’s point of view. Then ask students to rehearse and present their new scenes to the class.Connecting to the Students—Discussion Questions1. The reader does not know what or how JoJo feels about his past actions from what he says, only from what he does. Based on his actions, what is JoJo’s attitude about his past? What does he do to let the reader know how he has changed?2. Before JoJo was sent to jail, he terrorized the town, so the townspeople had their reasons to fear him and treat him badly. What could JoJo have done to show that he had changed?3. Ardell is understandably angry and bitter toward JoJo. What does his anger do for him? How does it help or hinder him? How does Ardell use his anger to control others in his family and his community?4. Why does Ardell’s father move out of the house? Was the move more Ardell’s idea or his mother’s? Why?5. Why is Shana able to forgive JoJo and allow him to see their son? Why are Shana’s parents not so forgiving?6. How does gossip fuel the anger in Ardell and the hatred the community feels toward JoJo? Why is no one willing to give him a second chance? To even talk to him or his mother?7. Why are the people in the community willing to forgive and even cover up for Ardell and his actions, but not JoJo’s actions?8. After Ardell assaults Shana, shakes her baby and resists arrest, the community continues to blame JoJo. The people say, “They should have locked JoJo up longer.” And, “If he hadn’t come back here, none of this would have happened.” Why is it easier for them to blame JoJo than to hold Ardell responsible for his actions?9. The narrator is a passive observer throughout the story. Why doesn’t she involve herself? What are her feelings toward JoJo? Would it have made a difference to JoJo if he had known how she felt? 10. Why does the narrator finally decide to call the police about what she sees the night JoJo is killed? What will her decision cost her and her family?Awards: None for this book in particular, but author is a five-time winner of the Crime Writers of Canada's Arthur Ellis Award for Best Juvenile Crime NovelPersonal response: Back is a story about a young man, Jojo, who is back from serving time in prison for a crime that left another boy (Eden) in a vegetative state. When he is released, Jojo returns to his neighborhood where almost everyone despises him and Eden’s older brother, Ardell, wants Jojo to pay for his crime against his brother. While there is some intense, action packed moments in this book, I was overall unimpressed with the plot and characters. Both were underdeveloped to me and the ending is just okay. Overall there is nothing that is particularly special about this book, but I do see how it could be appealing to a reluctant reader or to a reader who may come from a similar situation.

[shouldireadit · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read the Spanish language version, "El Regreso," published in 2011.

This Spanish translation of a novel originally written in English accurately portrays how continuous thoughts of revenge, along with a mob mentality, chase away all reason and blur the choices between right and wrong. It invites class discussion, and will stay with readers long after the last sentence has been read.