You Don't Know Me (novel)

You Don't Know Me is a coming-of-age novel by David Klass which tells the tale of a young boy who is abused and faces pressure in his school. It was first published in 2001.

Plot summary

John is a young fourteen-year-old boy. He lives with his mother and his mother's boyfriend, Stan, who he calls the "Man Who is Not my Father". The man abuses John by assaulting him when nobody is around. He has a friend named Billy Beezer who is skinny but eats a lot which John thinks is impossible. John is "slow" and doesn't understand the phrases many teens use. John also has a crush on a girl named Gloria, but he calls her Glory Hallelujah. Billy also has a crush on her. Near the beginning of the book, Billy is arrested for stealing an egg roll from a Chinese restaurant in the food court of a mall. John sees this as a chance to ask Gloria out which he does by sending her a note that she eats, but explains to him it was so the teacher didn't see. She accepts and goes to a basketball game with him. Billy goes also and calls John a terrible friend. A riot occurs in the gym and John and Gloria escape. Gloria brings John home and seduces him until John escapes from her and her angry father, but leaves clothes and money which he took from Stan's drawer. Stan finds out and takes John to do some "business". John is forced to carry TVs into a truck. It is also learned that the man deals in transporting stolen TVs. The man also tells John that him and his mother are getting married. In school; Gloria humiliates John, Billy picks on him and he is in trouble for vocalizing a rude thought about a teacher out loud and making her cry. Soon John is asked to a dance by a girl named Violet, who he had previously nicknamed "Violent". He goes with her and Billy forgives John because he likes another girl now, and Violet stands up for John against Gloria and her new boyfriend. When John goes home, Stan is drunk and assaults John but this time he rebels. He and the man fight. The man gets the better of the fight and beats John senseless. He is saved by his music teacher, Mr. Steenwilly, who had seen John's signs of abuse and came to check up on him. John wakes up in the hospital and his friends and mother are there. His mother wishes he told her before and that she loves him and that he is her flesh and blood. John feels that his mother really knows him and feels loved. He then attends the school's music concert where he cries at the end at a music piece he learned in class, because he finally figures out that it's a love story.

Reviews

• Mark Oppenheimer (September 16, 2001). "Children's Books : You Don't Know Me". New York Times. Retrieved June 20, 2011. 
• Kelly Milner Halls (May 13, 2001). "Young Adult Books". Washington Post. Retrieved June 20, 2011. 
• Review in the Lodi Sentinel

References