Saint Iggy

Iggy has been kicked out of school. Not because of anything he really did wrong (except follow a hot girl into a class that he "used" to be in), but because of the teacher and his classmate's preconceived notions of who he is. Iggy doesn't want to be kicked out of school and embarks on a quest that

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he hopes will help him contribute to society and thus be allowed to return to school. Iggy's search for exactly how to contribute leads him to some unusual places, including a church, a hair salon and a board meeting.

Saint Iggy is the story of how beauty can exist where you least expect it. Iggy himself is in turns hardened by his own life with drug addicted parents and is innocent and sweet by his wonder and facination in the world that surrounds him. Iggy is a character who will stay with you for a long time. This book was very well written and you can't help but hope that in the end Iggy will find his way to where he wants to go.

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Poor Iggy. After getting kicked out of school, he just wants to do something good with his life. Trouble is, he just doesn't know how. Everything he tries gets him in to even more trouble until he turns up at the home of his friend's mother. She sees the good in Iggy (sort of miraculously) and

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tries to steer him on the right path. Iggy is determined though -- he wants to be a saint. And, as we all know, you can't become a saint until you are dead.

Realist, sobering, and very good.

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Iggy Corso doesn't know what to do with his life after being kicked out of high school. He's basically a good kid but can't overcome the pain of his mother taking off and seeing his drunken father sprawled on the couch in their slum apartment. When Iggy meets up with his friend, Mo, things really

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start to take a turn, like paying off a drug dealer, finding out about Mo's secret wealth, and getting back into high school to make something of his life instead of ending up like his parents. It is never an easy decision.

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I would like to introduce Saint Iggy by KL Going. My fellow TSL's will have at least heard of it and most have read Fat Kid Rules the World, which was by the same author. I enjoyed both books, but the second has transcended the first. KL Going has dropped all the gimicky trappings that she used to

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sell the first book and has really given us a look into the life of a child less fortunate. Born in the projects addicted to meth, Iggy wants to show everyone that he is a good person. He wants people to look past his druggie parents, ugly neighborhood and odd personality to see who he really is: a real person who does not do drugs or drink and wants to do good with his life. Let down by the system and his friends, Iggy falls into an selfless act that is both more and less than he had planned.

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Many readers are not aware of the ESP award. Previous winners are A Room on Lorelei Street by Mary Pearson and Heck Superhero by Martine Leavitt. Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting is the book that inspired the ESP award. This year a retrospective award was given to the late Carol Fenner for King of

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Dragons. What is the ESP award? It is the book that is published each year that strikes the cord of honesty and is also the book that comes closest to being my autobiography. Saint Iggy is this year’s winner of the Ed Spicer Personal book award!

I am not a crack baby, but Iggy’s dysfunctional family that did not attend school functions, rings a cord. My mother did not abandon me, but for many years she was in denial about my father’s addiction to alcohol. Like Iggy, I am consumed with “plans” and about doing something important with my life. Unlike Iggy, I have probably not said anything as beautiful as: “Maybe it comes from a color circle, where you can see the world in every single color. Then when you step out again, nothing looks the same as it did when you went in.” (p. 154). Iggy says this when he realizes that how we view people and the world depends on our own experiences. Adults almost (Olmos) help us; maybe they even help with details, but our own synthesis of how the world works is ours alone. Like many teens, Iggy falls victim to peer pressure. In Iggy’s case, it is his friend Mo. Mo is from a wealthy family, but he is rebelling against his family, especially his lawyer father. Mo believes that Iggy’s world holds truths that his materialistic parents just cannot see. Mo decides that the world would be better if people renounce the wasteful, consumeristic approach to living—like the world Iggy knows. Iggy is smart enough to conclude that Mo doesn’t even know what he doesn’t know. Mo is clueless when it comes to evaluating Iggy’s world, a place that Iggy must stay because he does not have that rich family to bail him out. Saint Iggy pokes at the sores in our society: Social workers who have no clue about the kids or neighborhoods in which they live, schools and administrations who have too many students to probe deeply (despite being decent, multi-layered characters like Mr. Olmos); and families that refuse to see obvious truths like drug addiction. It is a book that is popular with teens and it is a book that is filled with fundamental truth, an ESP winner! Congratulations Ms Going!

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Iggy is a very sympathetic character, one of those for whom everything that can go wrong does go wrong. The novel does get bogged slightly in the typical YA dramatic melodrama, but Going creates a very believeable character in Iggy with a great, strong voice.

In Saint Iggy, Iggy Corso gets kicked out of school--suspended, really, but the hearing's on Friday and it could be permanent--for trying to get back into a class that he'd dropped earlier in the semester. He turns to his mentor, Mo, who after scoring a mishmash of drugs on credit, takes Iggy back

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to his mother's apartment. Mo's mother offers to help Iggy, while Mo decides to exploit Iggy's situation to try to get $2000 to pay off Freddie, the dealer. All while this is going on, Iggy's trying to figure out what he can to to "contribute," to show that he's a good person and should be let back into school. It's kind of a "what am I doing with my life" theme, but it's more goal-oriented than that--Iggy wants to get back into school, desperately--but then he makes a different choice, and decides there's another way for him to "contribute." K.L.Going has created a quality character here; he's a little unbelievably naive and the reader may find herself bemoaning the choices Iggy makes--you can see the unhappy ending coming from a mile off. However, Going's created a world for Iggy that he fits seamlessly into. One plot feature that was interesting--Iggy doesn't use drugs. He's like a DARE ambassador, showing the reader all the evils that come from drug abuse. I've rated it 4 stars out of 5, because while it was a good read, there was something about the book that didn't feel realistic--after trying so hard to craft a realistic look at poverty, Going switches to a depiction of the ultra-wealthy, and it just falls flat. Nonetheless, recommended for purchase for teen collections at the public library. School libraries may want to exercise caution because of the heavy drug use, but nothing is overly graphic. Would be appropriate for upper secondary school students.

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I found this book very difficult to enjoy or to like. Iggy is a like able character and seeing his life that is clearly without hope, is painful.

This book was very well written, but too depressing for me to enjoy. It would appeal to those who like literary or problem fiction.

Iggy is kicked out of school because of being a "problem student." He wants to make things right but that is not easy for a kid who lives in the projects, has an absent drug addicted mom and an alcoholic dad. Throw in a violent drug dealer and a pot head friend, and Iggy's journey to make things

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right is off to a rocky start.

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This book has such a strong sense of character--that "voice" is really compelling. It's a fast read, and I like it that here and there a line would jump out at me and really pull me into the book emotionally. I was a bit disappointed with the ending, though it had a lot of potential and some

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interesting imagery.

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Didn't see the ending coming. Interesting and heartbreaking story of a boy with drug-addicted parents.

This book was really sucky. This is on of the most dreadful book ive ever read. I kept having to pushing my self to keep reading it. It was bad and im not going to ever read a book like this ever again. D: