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ISBN: 978-1-926794-12-9
Trade paperback, 5.25 x 7.5
PUB DATE: September 15th, 2012
PRICE: $14.95 CDN
CATEGORY: Young Adult Fiction
AGE RANGE: 14 - 18

Jan is a 17 year-old kid in trouble with the law. Al is a feisty old coot. Paired together because Jan must serve community service hours at a seniors’ residence after pleading guilty to a marijuana possession offense, the two initially resent each other. Gradually, the curmudgeonly Al becomes mentor and father-figure to the young delinquent. Through the old man’s guidance and the boy's re-framing of a series of bad dreams, Jan begins to imagine other possibilities. He learns to value compassion and decency as part of successful human relationships. Making a choice to leave behind his unsavory past, Jan falls in love with young Jodi, with books, with ideas and writing because of Al's influence. When the old man is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Jan resolves to be bodyguard to Al. With this choice, one life ends and another begins.


REVIEWS:

"Not With a Bang accentuates the power of words to heal and connect. This is a genuine, thought-provoking, and poignant novel that should hold wide appeal." — Quill & Quire

"While reading Not With a Bang, I felt as if I was holding a cousin of Elizabeth Smart's By Grand Central Station I Sat and Wept (1945) — a novella of such intensity and poetic intelligence that it does not spend the time drawing readers towards a climax but simply catapults us to it and keeps us there for the entire book... Not With a Bang is neither far-fetched nor commonplace but insightful, challenging to views usually long-held, and sublimely powerful. I've learned never to expect less from Gail Sidonie Sobat; I've never been disappointed" — CanLit for Little Canadians