Mary Lou Hall

Wirewalker Mary Lou Hall

Precious meets Laurie Halse Anderson in this beautifully written literary debut about inner-city horrors and one boys journey to overcome them. Fourteen-year-old Clarence is small and slight for his age. His mother—who, like Clarence, was black—was killed before his eyes by a stray bullet four years ago. His white father has since abdicated all pretense of parenthood and allowed his drinking buddy Johnny price to press Clarence into service as a drug runner in exchange for keeping the family marginally afloat. In his wanderings through his frightening and desolate urban neighborhood, Clarence encounters Mona, a huge albino Great Dane with whom he develops a deep bond. He agrees to help her owner, Gina, a crack addict, with Monas care. Shortly after meeting Mona, Clarences father and Johnny price take Clarence to his first dogfight, a horrific spectacle run by Y, the dominant drug dealer of the area. Appalled by the carnage, Clarence faints and is ridiculed by the two men. He then vows to be a good person, to live up to his mothers expectations, and to overcome his impossible environment, finding help from the kindly Bangladeshi immigrant who runs the local convenience store, from his plucky English teacher, and from his imagined interactions with Mona the dog. A novel about hope and self-reliance in the face of grave danger, Wirewalker is a masterfully written debut that blends gritty realism with moments of fantastical escape.