News: Parker Pens First Novel for Young Adults

Lauren Beckham Falcone of the Boston Herald writes that it was no mystery why Robert B. Parker decided to write a book for young adults. “My wife and my agent both thought it was a good idea,” said Parker. “When the two women in my life suggest something, how can I resist? I do what I’m told.”

Parker's first book in this category, Edenville Owls, centers on 14 year old Bobby Murphy and is set at the beginning of his school year in 1945. World War II has just ended and the world is changing, especially Bobby's world. There's his relationship with Joanie, for one-why does being her friend feel awkward all of a sudden? And then there are his buddies, the junior varsity Edenville Owls-a group of basketball players in need of a leader. And there is something evil in the air. Who is that man he saw arguing with his pretty, new English teacher? And what was the real reason she missed school for days afterward? Bobby knows he should mind his own business, but times are confusing.

The prolific Parker, a resident of Cambridge and the author of the Boston-based Spenser mysteries and several other mystery series, said writing about teenagers for teenagers presented new challenges. “You have to narrow your language range,” he said. “Which is something that’s completely opposite when you’re writing for adults. Also, you know, I’ve been around for 70-something years now and I know things you can’t possibly know when you are 14. So you have to figure out ways to keep that knowledge out of that, whereas in so many of my other novels, I would try to find ways to get that knowledge in.”

To read more about Parker and his new book for young adults, visit BostonHerald.com here.

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