{"id":98,"date":"2007-11-07T18:47:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-07T18:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbicmsblog.reedbusiness.com\/elogic_660000266\/2007\/11\/07\/teenage-sidekick-says-spud-no-small-potatoes\/"},"modified":"2007-11-07T18:47:00","modified_gmt":"2007-11-07T18:47:00","slug":"teenage-sidekick-says-spud-no-small-potatoes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=98","title":{"rendered":"Teenage Sidekick Says Spud No Small Potatoes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I swear there&#8217;s no conspiring that takes place between we <em>PW<\/em> bloggers, but you wouldn&#8217;t know it this week! Today I discovered that The Book Maven (a.k.a. Bethanne Patrick) had beaten me to the punch when she posted a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/blog\/670000267\/post\/1170016917.html\" rel=\"noopener\">review<\/a> of the same book my teenage sidekick, Katrina Van Amsterdam, is currently raving about. Serendipity!&nbsp;See Katrina&#8217;s remarks below.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.publishersweekly.com\/articles\/blog\/660000266\/20071107\/spud.gif\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.razorbillbooks.com\/title_detail.php?RecordID=1\" rel=\"noopener\">Spud<\/a><br \/><\/em>by <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/johnvanderuit.book.co.za\/\" rel=\"noopener\">John van de Ruit<\/a> (Razorbill, October 2007)<\/p>\n<p>The year 1990: my birth, the end of apartheid, and the setting of the novel <em>Spud<\/em> by John van de Ruit. The boy Spud: actually named Johnny Milton, 13 years old, and a first-year student at a South African all-boys boarding school. The story of Spud&rsquo;s first year at boarding school: brilliant, comical, and heartwarming. Van de Ruit puts a new spin on the classic tale of growing up as Spud experiences new friends, powerful ideas, and first loves.&nbsp;As we read Spud&rsquo;s daily diary entries, we learn to love him and the wildly amusing group of teenage boys with whom he lives. Pick up this book, THEN you won&rsquo;t miss out on a fantastic read, one that will both enlighten and entertain you.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I swear there&rsquo;s no conspiring that takes place between we PW bloggers, but you wouldn&rsquo;t know it this week! Today I discovered that The Book Maven (a.k.a. Bethanne Patrick) had beaten me to the punch when she posted a review of the same book my teenage sidekick, Katrina Van Amsterdam, is currently raving about. Serendipity!&nbsp;See [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}