Slave Day

Whoa, it's been awhile, hasn't it? My apologies for not updating more frequently. Life has been busy for me.

Slave Day
by Rob Thomas
Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 1997

Slave Day is a BIG departure from my normal fare of fantasy and quirky fiction. And to be perfectly honest, I have no idea what made me take it off the shelf and decide to have a look at it -- certainly not the cover art (not a dragon in sight). But having finished the book, all I can say is thank you to whatever force nudged me in that book's direction.

Slave Day chronicles a single day in the lives of seven students and a teacher at Robert E. Lee High School -- the charismatic student body president, a star football player and his cheerleader girlfriend, a self-proclaimed "trailer-trasher" who nonetheless is a passionate drama student, a computer geek, the ever-popular daughter of the mayor, a black student who wants to see the school's "Slave Day" fundraiser eliminated, and a no-nonsense history teacher. Yes, you have probably met these kids at your own high school.

The "Slave Day" in question is a fundraiser in which members of the student council are auctioned off to fellow students to be their "slaves" for a day. They carry books, wash cars, and are often subjected to other stunts, some humorous and some not so much. As you'd expect, "Slave Day" is pretty rough on all eight main characters -- the history teacher finds himself at the mercy of the trailer-trasher, who wants some sweet revenge for his consistently low grades in history; the cheerleader is purchased by her boyfriend and is forced to reevaluate her relationship with him; the geek ends up "slave" to the mayor's daughter and suddenly finds the spotlight on him for a change; and the black student decides to teach the student body president a lesson by buying him at any price. And by the end of the day, every character has changed... but whether for the better or for the worse is up to the reader to find out.

The book is told from a first-person perspective, but switches between all eight main characters, which can be hard to follow at times but, in my honest opinion, lets us get into the character's heads all the better. You find yourself sympathizing with them even as you want to climb inside the pages and smack them upside the heads. Parents might want to use discretion before letting their kids read -- Slave Day contains explicit language and sexual innuendo -- but otherwise, it is a startling, revealing inside look at today's high schools and their inhabitants.