Boy Toy by Barry Lyga

From the Publisher

Josh Mendel has a secret. Unfortunately, everyone knows what it is.
Five years ago, Josh’s life changed. Drastically. And everyone in his school, his town—seems like the world—thinks they understand. But they don’t—they can’t. And now, about to graduate from high school, Josh is still trying to sort through the pieces. First there’s Rachel, the girl he thought he’d lost years ago. She’s back, and she’s determined to be part of his life, whether he wants her there or not.Then there are college decisions to make, and the toughest baseball game of his life coming up, and a coach who won’t stop pushing Josh all the way to the brink. And then there’s Eve. Her return brings with it all the memories of Josh’s past. It’s time for Josh to face the truth about what happened.
If only he knew what the truth was . . .

The New York Times - Jack Martin

In a culture so saturated with sex, where 16-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears's pregnancy is common knowledge to fifth graders, what are teenagers to make of this book? What Lyga gives only glimpses of, through Josh's difficulty connecting to Rachel (or almost anyone else in his life), is the collateral damage caused by child abuse. Still, the novel vividly explores the gray areas between love, lust, right and wrong. Josh has nearly convinced himself that he bears the responsibility for the affair with Eve, rather than the other way round—until he's finally able to end that chapter for good. Boy Toy is an unsettling read, but that's exactly what it ought to be.

Children's Literature

From an outsider's perspective, Josh Mendel would appear to be the perfect teenager: He is exceptional when it comes to baseball, is good-looking, and still has the brains to qualify for Ivy League schools. Five years ago, however, Josh lost his chance to be a normal teenager when his seventh grade teacher, Eve, began to molest him. Haunted by the sexual experiences with Eve, Josh desperately wants to leave his hometown and escape to a place where no one will know about his past. At first it seems as if Josh might be able to float through the rest of senior year, going through all the motions, while never allowing himself to grow close to anyone besides his best friend, Zik. But soon, Josh finds himself falling for Rachel, a lost friend with whom he assumed he never again would be reunited. Now he finds himself reliving the moments he spent with Eve as he attempts to start from the beginning with Rachel. He knows everything about women, and yet he is completely innocent. Normal rites of passage for teenagers—kissing, relationships, and prom—are excruciating psychological hurdles for a confused Josh; furthermore, Eve has been recently released from prison due to good behavior. Josh is terrified of encountering Eve, but her return also forces him to face his past. While this is a disturbing story, it is impossible for it not to be. Josh brings to light the inner turmoil we all fight as we grow up and the dark secrets we all desperately try to hide from others, however great or small. It is a story that proves that our past might begin to shape us, but not necessarily defeat us, unless we allow it. Reviewer: Drew Blanchette

VOYA

Lyga again skillfully captures the turbulent world of high school in this novel. Expertly woven humor makes the book fun to read, yet it projects a powerful message about growing up at the same time. Some readers may find parts of the book too explicit, but the scenes are important to truly understand the relationships that Josh Mendel has with the people around him. Kudos to Lyga for another incredible read.

VOYA

When Josh was twelve, his young, female teacher seduced and carried on an affair with him until Josh was accused of attacking a girl and the teacher's molestation was discovered. As this novel opens, Josh, now eighteen, is about to graduate high school, might be going to a good college on a baseball scholarship, and learns that the teacher is about to be released from prison. If all that is not enough, the girl Josh was accused of attacking wants to get back into his life. Using several narrative voices-first person, transcribed therapy sessions, flashbacks-Lyga tackles this incredibly sensitive story with boldness and confidence. He does not shy away from graphic descriptions of Josh's past and even makes the audacious choice of showing young Josh enjoying the attention. Set in the same high school as his first novel, The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl (Houghton Mifflin, 2006/VOYA October 2006), and featuring younger siblings of some of the characters from that book, this story again captures the lives of high school students with humor and wisdom (sometimes beyond their years). The heartbreaking subject matter is leavened by Josh's intense interest in baseball statistics and an important subplot concerning a baseball game attended by college scouts. Josh is an intelligent young man with an eidetic memory, great athletic skills, loving friends, and a smart therapist. He works hard at healing himself and moving into healthy adulthood, and by the end of this well-written, challenging novel, the reader has high hopes that he will make it.

Kirkus Reviews

Striking out on a baseball bet forces a teen to face past emotional scars. At age 13, Joshua Mendel's history teacher, Eve Sherman, molested him for three weeks and changed the rest of his life. Five years later, the 18-year-old baseball star is preparing to graduate and working on restoring his damaged relationship with Rachel, a childhood crush. When Sherman is released from prison, Joshua realizes he must confront her in an attempt to gain the answers to the questions that have haunted him for years. Blending present events with extensive flashbacks, Lyga creates a tightly paced narrative that explores psychological turmoil without resorting to either clinical terminology or oversimplification. Authentic and fresh, the narrative voice develops along with Joshua, gaining experience but never overpowering the tortured undertones. Lyga's portrayal of the fight between Joshua and Sherman's husband is riveting and tense; the main character's later reflections on that confrontation are equally powerful. Deftly weaving together a painful confession and ambiguous ending, Lyga's dynamic writing style creates an emotionally wrenching and haunting tale. (Fiction. YA)

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Ten Things I Learned at the Age of Twelve

1. The Black Plague was transmitted by fleas that were carried throughout Europe by rats.

2. If you first paralyze it, you can cut open a frog and watch its lungs continue to inflate and deflate.

3. There are seven forms of the verb to be: am, being, been, is, was, were, and are.

4. In order to divide fractions, you invert the divisor to arrive at the reciprocal, which is then multiplied by the dividend. (Mixed fractions must first be converted to improper fractions.)

5. In Salem, the witches weren’t burned at the stake—they were pressed to death under big rocks . . . or hanged.

6. Islam was founded in the year 610. It is the third of three world religions worshiping the same God.

7. Each point on a “coordinate plane” (created by the joining of an x-axis and a y-axis) can be described by an ordered pair of numbers.

8. “Monotheism” is a belief system centered on a single deity, while “polytheism” subscribes to belief in multiple deities.

9. The area of a circle can be determined by using the formula pr2, where r is the radius of the circle.

10. How to please a woman.