I'm Exploding Now

It promises to be a less-than-thrilling summer for 16-year-old Manhattanite Max Whooten. He doesn't have a job. His parents are annoying. His younger sister is even more annoying. His buddy Trevor just got out of a mental institution and the hottest girl he knows is Leila, his best friend, who he'll never get with. All he's got to keep him company is his own anger. An anger he seemingly has no control over and which is increasingly taking over his life.

But an unexpected turn of events (well, not so unexpected -- the family cat, Mozart, aka Crappy, was sure to choke on a hairball sometime) leads him to his aunt's place in Woodstock. After Crappy is safely laid to rest next to his sister Madame Chow, Max decides to stick around Woodstock for a few weeks. Sure, his Aunt Ginny might be a bit eccentric, but she does introduce Max to Zini, a young artist who turns out to be his muse. This just might be the recipe for finding love, and most definitely finding himself.

Max lets us into his frustrated, highly hormonal, comical, and sometimes inspired world through a series of diary entries in this coming-of-age story about an ordinary boy becoming an extraordinary person and writer.