Jimmy the Geek
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
The summer after seventh grade, Harry and I used to meet under a street lamp at three o'clock in the morning at least once a week.
Just after school was over in June, my Uncle Bob gave me almost twenty books about a spy named Matt Helm. (Back in the sixties, I think it was, they made some Matt Helm movies. Harry and I rented one once; they're nothing like the books. The books are cool.) Harry and I went through them just about as fast as we could. We were always happy when a rainy day came along because then we could spend the day reading Matt Helm books instead of feeling guilty about not being outside, "in the fresh air." Somewhere along in that time, we decided what we were going to do when we grew up was join the CIA so, of course, we needed practice.
Our practice sessions would last from three o'clock in the morning until just around five when the night began to change from being really dark to mostly smoky. We brought along notebooks to keep a record of "significant details." We'd go check out people's backyards to see what they left outside. We'd look inside cars on the driver's side to see if anyone had left keys in the ignition. You'd be amazed if you knew how many people do that. (Any car like that, we'd take the keys out and hide them under the floor mat. Not much better, I know, but at least that way you're making a car thief have to look around first.)
And we'd always do surveillance on the all night gas station out on the main road through town. What we were really hoping was someone would try to hold it up so we could call the police and be heroes.
We did our spying almost the whole summer. We never told anybody about what we were doing — not friends, not siblings, and certainly not parents; one of the secrets to being a good spy is knowing how to keep things strictly between you and your partner.
Who knows what would have happened if we hadn't gotten caught one night. That's a really long story I won't go into here. I'll just tell you we were conducting our surveillance of the gas station when we heard a voice behind us say, "Freeze right where you are!"
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
Being a teenager is never easy. There are those turbulent hormones, the pressure to fit in, societal expectations, and, of course, never enough sleep. Add all of that to a new friend who threatens to overwhelm the tenuous balance. Brian Landis and his friends Harry, Kathryn, and Melinda are about to become sophomores at Afton High School when Jimmy Rosen and his family move to town from Ohio.
Jimmy is really skinny. He’s a sickly kid who can’t play sports like the other students. Jimmy likes playing cards and games and listening to classical music. He’s funny, he’s witty, and he knows how to say things that make people laugh. Harry, Brian, and the gang befriend Jimmy but there are others at the high school who can’t accept Jimmy. There’s a lot of bullying and meanness, and by the end of the year, things just explode.
Jimmy the Geek, a novel for teens, calls attention to the subjects of discrimination and its effects on kids. It shares a story of friendships, loyalty, betrayal, homophobia, bullying, and bigotry.
About the Author
James Buckley Heath was born in Montgomery, Alabama, and grew up in West Hartford, Connecticut. He acted professionally on stage, in film, and on television in New York City. He then taught English and drama in both independent and public schools. Heath and his wife, Edie, live in Sedona, Arizona.