100 sideways miles - Andrew Smith

Smith, A. (2014). 100 sideways miles. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Recommended age: 9th grade and up

Summary: Finn Easton is a high school junior who nearly died when he was five. During a freak accident, he and his mother where injured when a dead horse fell from a truck and landed on them.  His mother died.  He survived with a scar and epileptic seizures. His father wrote a best selling book that has a cult following.  He used many details about his son in the book.  Finn feels trapped by his life and by the book his father wrote.  He measures his life by the miles the Earth has traveled in space instead of by minutes. With his best friend Cade and his girlfriend Julia, Finn begins to come out of his shell and find story of his own.  This book does have lots of inappropriate language and teenage boy sexual humor.  It is a quick read, mildly humorous.

http://www.authorandrewsmith.com/Author_Andrew_Smith/Home.html

I can see students enjoying reading this book.  However, I could not see using this in my classroom.  There are other books that have better qualities / storyline to use to teach any literary element.