Saving Kenny [Hardcover]

Kenny Reed has a bright future ahead of him, but he and his siblings must first escape their abusive mother in this emotional middle-grade novel. An age-appropriate, safe conversation starter presented with alluring prose and sensitive treatment of complex issues.

Twelve-year-old Kenny Reed is a scholarship student at a private school across the river from his apartment in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, which he shares with an older brother and sister and their abusive mother. He has always lived in the shadow of his siblings' success, but when he watches a performance of the opera Aida, Kenny discovers costumes and decides to become a costume designer.

In the midst of tumultuous family dynamics and domestic violence, the three siblings find themselves achieving their dreams and breaking the cycle of violence in this coming-of-age story.A middle schooler seeks the courage to pursue his dreams amid mockery and an abusive home situation in Corinne Gaile’s novel Saving Kenny.

Twelve-year-old Kenny accompanies his older sister to the opera, expecting to be bored. However, it is an eyeopening experience that ignites his passion to become a costume designer. Already somewhat ostracized for being a private school scholarship kid, he now navigates the stigma surrounding boys who are interested in fields believed to be feminine. Further worsening his dilemma is the disapproval of his adored older brother, who signs him up for a “masculine” class when Kenny shares his dream.

Kenny is an impressionable, eager-to-please hero who struggles to find his voice and protect his dream. The constant abuse from his mother, who requires him to run in the rain to buy her milk after she bangs his lip on the kitchen sink, weakens his already low self-esteem. And Kenny’s fears and longing for normalcy meld wlã®