The Juvie Three

The Juvie Three

Korman, G. (2008). The juvie three. New York: Hyperion Books.

Gecko, Terence, and Arjay are all troubled young men who are headed down the wrong path quickly.  All three of the boys have found themselves in juvenile detention or in Arjay’s case, prison, when a man named Doug Healy comes along with a plan to reform them.  Things don’t start off so smoothly and then go really wrong when Mr. Healy falls off the fire escape trying to break up a fight between the three boys.  The boys drop off an unconscious, bleeding Mr. Healy at the local hospital but then begin to lead a model life in his absence- well, all except Terence, but even he is good for Terence, only angering the school theft-ring lord.  While Mr. Healy is not only without his memory, he is also without ID, making him a John Doe.  Along with Gecko’s rich girlfriend, Roxie, the three hatch a very successful plan to spring Mr. Healy from the awful psychiatric hospital where he’s been transferred and long story short, events that transpire during this escape, Roxie’s pocket-policeman and Terence’s theft-ring-king all making appearances,  prompt Mr. Healy’s memory and save the day.

The Juvie Three is appropriate for 7^th through 12^th grades and qualifies as a good contemporary fiction novel with the boys growth toward adulthood and it also meets each of the levels of Havighurst’s developmental tasks.  This novel would be an excellent choice for a middle school book talk for boys.