Punching Bag

Punching Bag is the compelling true story of a high school career defined by poverty and punctuated by outbreaks of domestic abuse. Rex Ogle, who brilliantly mapped his experience of hunger in Free Lunch, here describes his struggle to survive; reflects on his complex, often paradoxical relationship with his passionate, fierce mother; and charts the trajectory of his stepdad's anger. Hovering over Rex's story is the talismanic presence of his unborn baby sister.

Through it all, Rex threads moments of grace and humour that act as beacons of light in the darkness. Compulsively readable, beautifully crafted and authentically told, Punching Bag is a remarkable memoir about one teenager's cycle of violence, blame, and attempts to forgive his parents-and himself.

About the author

Rex Ogle is the author of Free Lunch, winner of the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award; Punching Bag, a New York Public Library Best Book; Abuela Don’t Forget Me, finalist for the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award; and Road Home, which received a Printz Honor and a Stonewall Book Award Honor. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

Summary

The companion to Rex Ogle’s award-winning Free Lunch is a searing account of adolescence in a household torn by domestic violence.

Product details

• Authors: Rex Ogle
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: ages 12 to 18
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 05.10.2021
• EAN: 9781324016236
• ISBN: 978-1-324-01623-6
• Dimensions: 147 mm x 218 mm x 23 mm
• Weight: 384 g
• Subjects: Children's and young people's books > Non-fiction books / Non-fiction picture books > History, politics; Non-fiction book > Dictionaries, reference works > Foreign-language dictionaries; YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION / Social Topics / Bullying, YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION / Social Topics / Peer Pressure, YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION / Social Topics / General, Children’s / Teenage: Social issues / topics, poverty;abuse;memoir;domestic violence