Rash (edition 2007)

Science fiction story of a boy who has inherited anger management problem from his father who in addition to his brother has spent time in jail for the petty offenses now considered major. Large passages about football games in prison reminded me of the satire, M*A*S*H (Robert Altman, not the TV show). This satire is pitched at our everyday cowardice in the face of conflict. The best thing in it is the AI creature named Bork who takes on a life of his own and contributes mightily to the saving of the main character. ( )

In the United Safer States of America, personal safety has become society’s obsession. French fries are illegal, contact sports have been banned, and obesity is a crime punishable by imprisonment.

Teenager Bo Marsten has grown up in this ultra-safe environment, but he has trouble following the many rules. Rash is the story of how his “rash” behavior lands him in a prison camp run by a sadistic former football coach, where he must play an illegal and almost forgotten sport: tackle football.

Wonderful narration with voices characterizing each individual. Probably boys from 6-9th grade will especially like it but I loved it as an adult too. As someone who grew up with concrete under my playstructure and riding my bike for years without a helmet, I can relate to the over emphasis on "safety". ( )

It was just kinda blah. And the female characters kept saying "Oh, Bo." Who says that? What kinda of response is that? Sure its nit-picking, but when it happens withing the first 30 pages and I have a stack of books at home. Yeah. ( )

Bo is from a family with a history: both his father and brother are incarcerated for anger-based crimes (road rage and a fistfight, respectively), and Bo is acutely aware of his own struggles with self-control. His rival, Karlohs, intentionally needles him, going so far as to give himself a rash and blame it on Bo. The resulting school-wide psychosomatic rash lands Bo in a heap of trouble, in spite of it not actually being his fault.. Name-calling has already put him on probation, so throwing a punch at Karlohs, while satisfying, seals his fate. Bo is off to the Canadian tundra to fill his 36-month sentence in a pizza factory, miles from nowhere and surrounded by hungry polar bears.

Work in the pizza factory isn’t unbearable, but it’s far from pleasant. However, things take a turn for the better when he’s accepted into the factory’s highly-selective, highly-illegal football team. Playing football gives Bo the outlet he never knew he’d been looking for, but it’s not enough to help him overcome all his fears. There are still those hungry polar bears on the other side of the fence, after all.

In between Bo’s athletic and personal problems, there’s the matter of his science-project AI he’d been working on when he was kicked out of school: Bork has somehow, against all odds, developed sentience and a sense of humor, and is now creeping through the WindO, a webghost with legal aspirations.

And thank goodness the government has stepped up to the plate to ensure the safety of its citizens! The United Safer States of America have outlawed virtually anything dangerous: alcohol, pocketknives, self-mutilation (tattoos and body piercing, mainly), even name-calling, which could damage the victim's feelings. The penal system, incarcerating nearly 25% of the population, is more about a labor force than corrections.

Lots of football details for the sports fans, plus humor and a main character you honestly root for, despite how many of his problems are entirely of his own making. 8th grade and up would likely enjoy this (older readers will get more out of it, of course), particularly reluctant-reader boys. ( )

In the future year of 2074, the United Safer States of America has become obsessed with health and safety. 16-year-old Bo Marsden is sentenced to work making pizzas in a Canadian tundra for being involved in a school fight. There at the prison, Bo and a selected number of other boys at the prison, Gold shirts, play football (an illegal sport) for Hammer, the camp warden. Hammer trains the boys and then bets on their games against the other prison football teams.
I thought that the book was very well written and very intriguing. I found it very difficult to put Rash down. The author had a very creative ideas and I thought it was fun and interesting to learn about this “Safer States of America.” Although there was a lot of football in the story, me being a girl, I still enjoyed it a lot. ( )