Spud by John van de Ruit is cleaver funny book based in an all boy’s school in South Africa. The premise of the book is that most of Spud’s schoolmates, teachers and his family are somewhat crazy and he is continuously surrounded by outrageous behavior on the part of everyone he knows. Spud has to then deal with all of the issues his life throws at him. Girls are part of the craziness that the 13 year old Spud is involved with along with brutal older schoolmates, friends that want to take unauthorized night swims, a school play and a drunken teacher / mentor who has regular lunches and discusses literature with Spud.
Spud is not one big joke - it is punctuated with serious issues of mental illness, bullying, family problems, post-apartheid South Africa, homosexuality, death, and many dysfunctional relationships. The author handles the many issues in the book in a very realistic manner. The brutality of practical jokes and teasing is often something that the boys simply have to deal with, and the fact that Spud finds himself with two “girlfriends” and a quandary of how to deal with that is a very realistic and sometimes instructive situation. I feel that Spud portrays the life of an adolescent boy in a humorous and accurate manner, filling his life with many of the issues that young boys have to deal with and providing entertainment and an example for readers to think about.
van de Ruit, J. (2007). Spud. New York: Razorbill.
