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Hi. My name is Ethan. Over the summer I read a book called Jude by Kate Morganroth. The book was about a fifteen-year-old boy named Jude who witnesses the killing of his drug-dealer father and then is sent to live with his mother who is running for public office. She sends him to an exclusive prep school. When one of his schoolmates dies of an overdose, Jude is accused of being the provider of the drugs. Although he is innocent he is tried as an adult and gets sent to a state penitentiary for five years.

Reading this book highlighted several social issues including teenage drug abuse, the effect of parental drug abuse on their children, teenage violence and the effect of incarcerating juveniles as adults. To study this further I researched several databases and relevant articles. On my blog, you can find my letter to Jude, my author biography, my book review, my issue statement, and my investigative report with a works cited list.

If you are interested in the book Jude or learning more about these social issues, please visit my web site and view my project.

Letter to Jude

Dear Jude,

My name is Ethan, and I'm just starting high school after a long relaxing summer vacation. I spent most of my time at home swimming, hanging out at a friend's house, or spending time with my family at the beach.

Over the summer I was also able to read the book Jude, by Kate Morgenroth, that tells your story. I enjoyed the book because it had lots of twists and turns that kept it interesting. I was very impressed by the way you handled certain situations. The fact that you were willing to spend time in jail in order to help get your mother elected mayor required alot of courage and selflessness. I was also impressed by the tenacity you showed in finding a way to get back at Harry for deceiving you. I don't know if I would have been able to stick with it as long as you did in order to make things right.

I thought that the author, Kate Morgenroth, had a very engaging writing style. The story was very creative and contained many surprises throughout which made me want to continue to read. The characters and the story were very believable. I think that your story would make a great movie.

Being about your same age, I can relate to many of the issues you faced such as drug use and living with separated parents. I can realize the hardships you faced with the loss of your father as well. What I didn't fully apreciate was the number of different ways that drugs could affect one person and their family.

What was it like going back to live with your mother even though you hadn't seen her since you were an infant? It must have been hard leaving your public school to attend a private school in which you were the new kid. I know that I would have definately had a rough time handling those situations.

Your story was very inspirational and left me thinking about the issues associated with illegal drug use. You might want to think about sharing your story with as many other high school students as you can as a way to raise awareness about these issues. You may be able to help change many people's idea about the use of drugs, and then hopefully this will keep kids from trying them. Since I have never met you, I have attached a picture of myself so you'll know what I look like.

Hope to talk to you soon.

Ethan

Book Review

In the book Jude, Kate Morgenroth had an engaging way of taking the reader through a series of situations in which characters used various forms of deception while involved in social issues such as illegal drugs, broken families, and juvenile incarceration. The author used believable characters involved in realistic situations which made it easy to relate to the difficulties they created for themselves.

After fifteen year old Jude witnesses the murder of his drug dealing father, he goes to live with his mother, the local District Attorney, who he thought had abandoned him at birth. She willingly takes Jude in and enrolls him in an exclusive prep school where Jude is falsely accused of being involved with illegal drugs. His mother’s boyfriend, Harry, the deputy police commissioner, convinces Jude to take part in an elaborate plan to help his mother get elected to public office on an anti–drug platform. However things go terribly wrong and Jude is tricked into pleading guilty to a crime that he never committed and is sentenced to serve five years in the state penitentiary. After being released from prison, Jude sets out to clear his name and settle up with the ones who tricked him into spending five years in prison.

In many ways Jude is the true victim in the story. He is subject to the deception of several adults in his life. His father deceived him by telling him that his mother left the family when he was an infant. Jude is further victimized when a school classmate overdoses on heroin and Jude is unjustly accused of providing the drugs. Finally, Jude is tricked by Harry into pretending to be a drug dealer as part of a scheme to get his mother elected mayor. Harry promises, “Then we’ll get you a new trial, and with the real evidence you’ll be acquitted.” Jude agrees and goes to prison but Harry never follows through on his promise.

The book’s plot was complex in that there were a series of situations and circumstances that all involved deception. Jude’s father led a secret life as a drug dealer and lied to Jude about his mother. Harry deceived Jude by tricking him into participating in a dishonest scheme to get his mother elected mayor.

Each part of the plot conveyed the same message. The message was that those who try to get what they want through the use of deception are usually disappointed with the results. The different situations that Jude had to cope with were believable which made for an engaging story. Kate Morgenroth’s writing style, which used ordinary characters involved in relevant social issues, allowed me to relate to the characters’ emotions and made the book's complex plot easy to follow.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a realistic story with a valuable lesson. I give Jude, by Kate Morgenroth a five star rating.

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Author Biography of Kate Morgenroth

Kate Morgenroth, daughter of William Morgenroth and Elizabeth Hayes, was born January 17, 1972 in New York. She attended Princeton University in New Jersey, where she studied creative writing. After college, she spent an entire year in China where she taught English. Once she returned to New York, she was employed as a marketing assistant by Harper Collins publishing company in New York City. This was where her first book, Kill Me First, was published. Kill Me First turned out to be a huge success. A Publishers Weekly reviewer concluded that Kill Me First was "a clever and unusual thriller, unflinching in its violence, economic in its plotting, and unpredictable in its psychological developments." Library Journal reviewer, Rebecca Stankowski, called Kill Me First an "intelligent thriller" and a "refreshing first novel." Kate Morgenroth later wrote Saved, Jude, and Echo. All of these books are young adult level thrillers.

While her third book, Jude, received some mixed reviews, it received the Edgar Allan Poe Nomination from the Mystery Writers of America in young adult fiction category. Jude is a story about a teenager, Jude, who endures many trials in his life ranging from being kidnapped as an infant by his drug dealing father, being imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, and ultimately trying to reunite with his mother once released from prison.

Morgenroth described her motivation for writing this type of novel in an interview with US1 Newspaper in which she said, "I'm fascinated by the unpredictability of human beings. In a given situation, you never know how you're going to react. You'd like to think that you'd be the hero ... But I think the truth is that you never really know what's going to happen when your survival instincts kick in."

Works Cited

"Kate Morenroth." Contemporary Authors Online, Gale. 2008. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center, Gale. John Carroll. Sept 12, 2008. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC

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Issue Satement

ISSUE:
The major social issue in the book Jude by Kate Morganroth involves teenage drug abuse, violent crimes and juvenile incarceration.

QUESTIONS THAT I INTEND TO ANSWER:
What are the characteristics and prevalance of teenage drug abuse in the United States?
Are children of drug abusing parents more likely to become drug abusers themselves?
Is there a connection between teenage drug abuse and teenage violent crimes?
Does incarcerating teenagers as adults for committing violent crimes help solve the problem?

WORKS CITED 1

Goode, Erich. "Drug Abuse." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. 2008. Grolier Online. John Carroll School. 18 Sep. 2008 http://gme.grolier.com/

• People abuse illegal drugs such as marijuana, which have no medical purpose, for the sole purpose of getting high. People also abuse prescription drugs that are purchased legally for medical use.
• Things that are not illegal are also commonly abused. Alcohol and nicotine from cigarettes are the two most common.
• 78 million Americans age 12 and over have tried at least one or more prohibited drugs for the purpose of getting high.
• Every year, our society is estimated to spend $40 - $100 billion on illegal-drugs.
  60% of illegal drugs sold in the world end up in the United States.
• Use of marijuana from 8th – 12th graders has declined from 60% throughout the 1980s to 49% in 2003.
• “The abuse of drugs, legal and illegal, influence or alter the workings of the mind; they affect moods, emotions, feelings, and thinking processes.”

WORKS CITED 2

McLaughlin, Sharon. "Troubling trends: teens and addiction. (Canada)." The Advocate 65.6 (Nov 2007): 811(3). Student Resource Center - Gold. Gale. John Carroll School. 20 Sept. 2008 http://find.galegroup.com/.

• Although many people think that drug abuse is a problem associated mainly with poverty, the reality is that drug abuse affects people of all ages, cultures, ethnicities, and economic backgrounds
• There is significant peer pressure on teens to experiment with alcohol and illicit drugs.
• In some cases it is easier and cheaper for minors to get illegal drugs than buy alcohol or cigarettes.
• There are many signs of teenage drug abuse including sudden changes in the quality of school work, temper outbreaks, withdrawal from responsibility, attitude changes, negative changes in physical appearance, and increased secretive behavior.
• “Research shows that the rate of alcoholism and addiction is higher in the legal profession than in other professions and society as a whole.”
• “Statistics show that drug addiction is rampant in mid- and upper-middle-class families.”