Danny Ain't

Narrator Danny, tough-talking and resourceful, worships his father, a widower and Vietnam War veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. When Pop's latest bout lands him in the hospital, Danny tells only his two best friends--his experience in the Home during Pop's last in-patient treatment has made him determined to stay on his own, in his and Pop's ramshackle trailer in a rural California mountain town. Although scrounging for food becomes a problem, streetwise Danny refuses work as a drug runner and instead hustles for jobs around town. He triumphs with the help of friends old and new, as does his rehabilitated parent. This companion book to Cottonwood's The Adventures of Boone Barnaby is steeped in extraneous detail, yet brave, compassionate Danny, who embraces his incorrect grammar as symbolic of his identity, is worth cheering for. Ages 10-up. (Sept.)