48 Shades of Brown Paperback - 2004

Details

• Title 48 Shades of Brown
• Author Nick Earls
• Binding Paperback
• Edition 1st Graphia
• Pages 274
• Volumes 1
• Language ENG
• Publisher Clarion Books, New York
• Date 2004-06-07
• ISBN 9780618452958 / 0618452958
• Weight 0.65 lbs (0.29 kg)
• Dimensions 7 x 5 x 0.6 in (17.78 x 12.70 x 1.52 cm)
• Ages 12 to UP years
• Grade levels 7 - UP
• Reading level 790
• Library of Congress subjects Humorous stories, Australia
• Library of Congress Catalog Number 2003022882
• Dewey Decimal Code FIC

By eight-thirty it’s getting quite crowded.
Jacq, who at seven-thirty was pacing the empty verandahs and smoking a lot, now has champagne in one hand, wine in the other and several conversations going at once. Naomi is working on a spur-of-the- moment punch in the kitchen. Burns is gripping a beer as though it’s a mother’s hand, and looking even more out of place than me.
Phil Borthwick turns up in a tie and Burns gives me a look that suggests he feels a little better about himself. Phil (and I admire this) seems to have no idea that he’s the only person in a tie, and says, with some glee, Great, dancing, when he works out what’s going on in the loungeroom, and why the furniture is all outside.
At least he hasn’t tried anything silly with food. He’s brought a carton of full-strength beer, and there will be plenty of people here who think this more than makes up for the tie.
I don’t actually drink it myself, he says sheepishly to Jacq and me. I’ve got an enzyme thing, so I can’t really touch alcohol. But I thought I’d bring it for the party.
Thanks, Phil, Jacq says, already touching alcohol as though she and it are at least close friends, and with a smile that I haven’t seen before. A lazy, uncomplicated smile, a drinking smile, buckling under the weight of its own bonhomie. But you’d have just the one, wouldn’t you? It’s a party.

STARRED REVIEW "With small details about throwing up, basil, Romeo and Juliet, brown birds, postcards, and sex, Earls build a too-true story that neither older young adults nor adults will be able to put down as their smiles become belly laughs that lead them to new perspectives." VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates)

Dan's narration is wry and understatedly funny throughout as he comes face to face with the stretching but still extant limits of his maturation...this is a creative departure from the classic Bildugnsroman in its articulate portrayal of a young man who's starting to realize how much more there is to adulthood that he'd realized or is ready for.
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Older teens will relish Dan's wry, self-deprecating honesty about attratction, sex (mostly overheard), beer, calculus, and his uproariously funny, earnest search for the kind of guy he wants to be.
Booklist, ALA

Dan is a good kid, and his ruefully observed narration of unrequited love will keep the attention of any boy once persuaded into its pages.
Horn Book

Through Dan's voice, Earls perfectly captures the obsessive, self-conscious, confused state of mind that goes along with adolescence. A vibrant rendition of growing pains.
Publishers Weekly

Dan is a wonderful, complex character. Teen boys - and girls - will find much that they can relate to in this coming-of-age story.
School Library Journal

This Australian coming-of-age novel is both funny and poignant. As Dan fumbles through the process of forming a relationship with someone of the opposite sex, he also learns about making pesto, interpreting Romeo and Juliet, why almost all birds are one of the 48 shades of brown, and why his best course of action is just to be himself.
KLIATT