Prison Boy

Gr 7 Up—McKay continues writing in the vein of war and unrest with her latest. Pax, a teenage orphan boy, has been raised in the slums of an unidentified country. He is the eldest in the orphanage and has taken the youngest, Kai, under his wing. After their caregiver passes away, Kai and Pax are forced to live on the streets. The boys survive by taking odd jobs. McKay does an extraordinary job displaying how little the protagonists know about the modern world. When introduced to air conditioning in a car, they believe they are experiencing some sort of miracle. The story picks up speed when one of Pax's jobs leads him to deliver a package that he realizes too late is a bomb, and it detonates, killing many people. The boys get away from the blast in time only to be arrested for terrorism. While in prison, Pax endures great torture at the hands of the government. These scenes, though not graphic, are quite haunting. To avoid the pain, the young man slips into a dream world, which some readers may find distracting from the realistic tone of the rest of the story. The book starts off slow and confusing, making the setting seem muddled, but the further readers get, the clearer the narrative becomes. Pax and Kai are outstanding characters that are fully developed.