Saint Iggy, by K.L. Going

I love it when I can pick up a book and know exactly who I'd recommend it to. Five pages into it, I was planning "the sell" to one of my TAs. That sell amounted to "I couldn't stop thinking about you while I read this. You ARE this kid."

Iggy's a special case. His home life, quite frankly, sucks. He just wants to make a positive difference, somehow, somewhere. And he does, but not quite the way he expects. I give this 2 big thumbs up..and maybe even a toe.

From the publisher blurb...

'I am not so bad a person once you get to know me.'

When Iggy Corso gets kicked out of high school, there's no one for him to tell. His mother has gone off, his father is stoned on the couch, and the phone's been disconnected, so even the social worker can't get through. Leaving his public housing behind, Iggy ventures into the world to make something of his life. It's not easy when you're sixteen, have no skills, and your only friend is mixed up with the dealer who got your mom hooked. But Iggy is . . . Iggy, and he has the kind of wisdom that lets him see what no one else can. K. L. Going's third novel is a haunting achievement about a young man's tragic search for meaning in a world that to him makes no sense.