Playing With Matches

One of my husband's closest friends since High School is Brian Katcher, who wrote the young adult novel Playing With Matches. He had a book signing at our local Barnes and Nobles this weekend. He is one of the nicest, most genuine people I've ever met so you can't be anything but happy to see his success. Here is what I wrote in my amazon review of the book:

"As I read this Young Adult novel I was brought back to my own years in high school with all the angst and emotions that entailed. I was rooting for Leon so strongly that it was painful to see him make the inevitable teenage boy mistakes. I was also constantly reminding myself that it was written by a man. The writer was able to capture the emotions of both the male lead and the female characters which was fascinating to read. This is more than YA fiction. It is a seriously good read for anyone. "

It would make a great gift for a teenager in your like whether they read or not. It is about underdogs and has a great message of acceptance. There is sexual content appropriate for a teenager but I wouldn't recommend for anyone under 13.

Brian is on the far right, my nerd Mike is next to him, his twin Mark, and Ajay another good friend of theirs from high school. Mike says that Brian took all of their personality traits and put them in a blender to create the friends in the book. There is a lot of references to their high school, Ft. Zumwalt South, which made it fun for a lot of the kids around here to read.