Friday, July 12, 2019

Gideon Versus the Gods of Cool by Stephen Gashler

Gideon is a nerd, and is pretty happy with his state until one of his teachers tells him that he must join the football team or get expelled.  He joins the team and is invited to a kind of initiation where he learns that the whole football team worships a strange supernatural god of sports.  Gideon and his friends soon discover that there are other gods brain washing students, the god of fashion, the god of rock music etc.  Can Gideon and his friends fight the seemingly inexorable forces of coolness, and save their classmates from becoming mental zombies?

This was a fun satire of junior high life, written by a master storyteller.  With a healthy mix of humor Gashler makes peer pressure into a fast paced fantasy adventure. It is not all fun and games, however. Like any good satire, it brings up important questions about if, and how, students can resist the strong peer pressures they face every day.

In full disclosure, I must mention that Steve is a good friend of mine.  He worked as a storyteller at my library when he was still in college.  For more than a decade he and his family (his wife and daughters are also great performers) have been regulars a the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival and local "Biggest Liar" competitions.  We are working with him now to come and do a book signing at our library. (296 p. 2019)


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