Notes From the Midnight Driver

"You would think I'd have been pretty scared by this point, but because I had drunk so much vodka so fast, I was still getting drunker by the second. Even with my hands cuffed behind my back -- and the cuffs were REALLY tight, because the officer hadn't been enjoying me much so far -- I was like a little one-man house party in the back seat of the cruiser. The last thing I remember was getting bored of the dispatch radio, and shouting, 'Change the station! Get me some ROCK!' "Have you ever turned on the TV and heard someone who has scored a multi-million dollar lottery jackpot boasting about the skill it took to win? Of course, not! There is no skill involved in buying the winning ticket out of those hundreds of thousands of entries. It's purely the luck of the draw.Well, I won the lottery as a teenager. A bunch of times. On numerous occasions I drove legally drunk. On special occasions I drove blind drunk. And it turned out that I was one of the few, the chosen, the lucky ones who never hurt themselves or anybody else while in that condition behind the wheel of an unforgiving, speeding mass of metal.I wasn't good. No, I was lucky. There were back then, and still are, lots of other teens and older folk killing or being killed in this fashion on a daily basis.And, no, I can't help wondering sometimes where I would be today if the wrong number had suddenly come up for me on one of those long-ago Friday nights.Sixteen-year-old Alex Gregory will be waiting quite a while now before getting his driver's license. Upset over his parents splitting up and his father moving out, Alex marks the evening of his mother's "first date" by drinking a significant quantity of the vodka his father left behind, finding his mother's keys, and getting behind the wheel of her car. But Alex is a big money lottery winner: The only victims of his near-tragic judgment are Mrs. Wilson's French lawn gnome and the cop whose shoes and walkie-talkie Alex pukes all over after Mom's car comes to rest in Mrs. Wilson's azalea bushes. It's that same cop who delivers the intoxicated, mildly injured teen to the desk sergeant down at the precinct house."Then I got the marvy idea that maybe I could just wipe the blood off my head first. I pushed my hair all the way up off my forehead, the alcohol-soaked wipe touched my wound, and I sobered up REAL fast, just as Sarge was putting his cup of steaming liquid on the desk blotter." 'Ooooowwwww!' I screamed. Up I jumped. Up jumped my arm. Up jumped the handcuff. Up jumped the desk. Up flew the coffee." 'Ooooowwwww! screamed Sarge. Sarge was wet!"Eventually the sodden mass of paper, blood, wipes, and coffee was disposed of by a guy in rubber gloves. Sarge found a new pair of pants, and came back. He took a really long look at my forehead, the mixture of blood, snot, and tears that was flowing freely across my facial features, and the moist abstract painting that had been his desk blotter, and decided to use a trick which always works for my dad: He would make me Somebody Else's Problem."Sarge shouted across the room, 'Call me an ambulance!'"I couldn't stop myself. 'Okay, you're an ambulance!'"And so it went, until the paramedics accidentally banged my head against the doorway of the emergency room, and I passed out for good."Alex is required to atone for his criminal behavior by doing time at the Egbert P. Johnson Memorial Home for the Aged, working with elderly resident Solomon Lewis. Sol is a cantankerous old guy who fires rounds of Yiddish at Alex while inadvertently teaching him to take responsibility for his actions, to learn a little something about the elderly, and to see those things that are right in front of his face.NOTES FROM THE MIDNIGHT DRIVER, the story of Alex Gregory's transformation from a kid who isn't willing to take responsibility for his behavior, is a tale into which Jordan Sonnenblick has deftly folded the stirrings of first love, the tribulations of divorces and new step-siblings, a touch of peer rivalries, a fine-sounding Fender Telecaster, and a satisfyingly graphic portrayal of why teens might not want to get in the habit of smoking cigarettes.There are some very intense YA novels in print, filled with gory detail, that illustrate the deadly results of drunk driving. This is a much gentler tale that is absolutely perfect for middle school audiences, and is written by a middle school teacher with a keen sense of observation and a superb sense of (middle school) humor.

I remember borrowing the hardcover edition in our school library when I was in high school. And I dubbed thee as my favorite Jordan Sonnenblick book that I've read. So I saw the audiobook CD on sale in Amazon (for less than $5, I think), and I thought why not give it a go again. Reading this again as an adult, didn't change how much I liked it. I still think it was well written, I still think the characters are awesome, and so on, and so forth.Okay, I have to admit, I did find some parts are cheesy now that I reread it as an adult. But I think it's just my oldness showing! LOL!What I liked most about this book is that this was written when I was a teen (that was about twelve years ago), and yet reading it now still doesn't make any difference. What I mean is, it's still relevant if I read it now, or if I read it later twenty years from now. This book has achieved being timeless. It's still going to be a great book even if my future kids would read it. And I always applaud books that makes themselves immortal through time.I also just want to give props to the narrator for all the Polish/Yiddish pronunciations that I can never get right. He also definitely gave such awkward realistic emotions to Alex. Very well done!Other than that, just read (or listen) to it yourself to realize how awesome this book is. I definitely agree to this book being a "Tuesdays with Morrie for teens." But sometimes, I think it's such a different thing.

My 14-year-old son who is NOT a reader chose this from his assigned summer-reading list because he knew it was about a young guy taking a drive. My son SO wants to drive!!! He and I started reading it together, he reading from his paperback and me following along on my Kindle. First of all, I must say that the first words out of his mouth after he read the last words of the book were, "That was a good book!" I nearly fainted...with joy, of course, not just because he read an entire book and enjoyed it (although I was ecstatic!) but because he enjoyed reading a book with such substance. This book is not about sports or music. Well, actually it has a music aspect too which he certainly found interesting...but this book touches on some very pertinent issues facing young people today---dealing with divorcing parents, under-age drinking, taking care of and showing respect to the elderly, taking responsibility for our actions as well as accepting the consequences of them. It was written in such a inspiring yet humorous way that I wish every young person could do what we did and sit down and read this book together. It naturally lead us to talking about these topics and more. If I had tried to bring up under-age drinking on my own, I doubt that we would have had such a calm and honest dialogue.I intend for my 11-year-old son and me to read it together also.Thank you to the author for writing it and the Literature teachers at my son's high school for choosing such a great book! "Gotcha!" (You have to read the book to understand that one!!(By the way, this is the first book review that I have ever written even though I read a lot!!)

Habe das Buch gebraucht erworben, es kam schnell an und war sehr günstig. Damit bin ich vollkommen glücklich. Doch mit dem Buch ist es eine andere Sache. Das Buch zieht sich, meiner Meinung nach, wie Kaugummi. Kaum Spannung und zumeist vorhersehbare Handlungen. Uninteressante, flache, charakterlose Protagonisten (bis auf eine Ausnahme), das Buch soll Gefühle wecken, das war bei mir allerdings nicht der Fall, bis auf die Erleichterung, die ich verspürte, als ich es zur Seite legen konnte. Es gäbe für schulische Zwecke sicherlich geeignetere Werke. Schade, dass so Schülern die Lust auf lesen von fremdsprachigen Büchern genommen wird.

Wir haben das Buch "Notes from the midnight driver" neu gekauft. Leider sah es, trotz dessen, dass es neu war, schon so aus als hätte es einen Vorbesitzer gehabt (kleine weiße Stellen, angestoßene Ecken). Das Buch (für den Schulunterricht gekauft) sah genauso aus, wie die Bücher der Mitschüler, die gebrauchte Bücher gekauft hatten.Sprachlich ist es ansprechend geschrieben und gut verständlich. Leider gibt es am Anfang schon einen Vorausblick, der einen Spoiler darstellt. Die Handlung ist interessant, aber relativ vorherrsehbar.

Super!Schnelle Lieferung, ordentlich verpackt,schneller als per Termin und mit Test in der Buchhandlung.

sehr zufrieden ....Lieferung war bereits am nächsten Tag da

Quick delivery. Good product.