His frighteningly batty grandmother, better known as Wombat, manages to ruin more than one family vacation. Actually, their maid, named Innocence is doing the selling his parents are just taking a cut of the profits. His parents are illegally selling homemade alcohol from their home. Spuds family is a bit dysfunctional itself. There is definitely controversy about Mandelas release, the boys in Durban debate politics in an African Affairs and Spuds father believes Mandela to be a communist. Spud writes of the impact that Madela has on him and on the other boys at school, showing the inspiration that Mandela offers to the black students at school. The setting is 1990s South Africa, when Nelson Mandela has just been released from jail and Apartheid is coming to an end.

Van de Ruits story is not just all fun and games though. Hilarity and chaos ensues, as can only be expected of boarding school life. Boarding school life revolves around the excitement of nighttime swims, kitchen raids, porn-screenings, cricket games and the typical pastimes of teenage boys. Spud and his insane housemates, with nicknames like Mad Dog, Fatty, Rambo and Grecko are known as the Crazy Eight. This novel is written in diary form, covering the confusion, fun times, girl troubles, and serious pondering of a teen boy. Urn:oclc:727644569 Republisher_date 20120426042521 Republisher_operator Scandate 20120424080537 Scanner many of the books that I have reviewed this past year were written for a primarily female audience, I have stumbled upon a thoughtful coming-of-age story written from a male perspective in John van de Ruits Spud.įourteen year-old John Milton may share his name with a famous writer, but at his new boarding school in South Africa, he is given the nickname Spud.

Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 16:42:17 Bookplateleaf 0008 Boxid IA179301 Boxid_2 CH110701 Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II City New York Donorįriendsofthesanfranciscopubliclibrary Edition 2007 Softcover Edition.

Spud by John van de Ruit