"You don't know me." By David Klass

"You don't know me."

Main point:

John is a very quiet, and shy person. He would probably be described as an awkward character. He doesn't have a lot of friends.

Conclusion:

John never talks much unless he is talked to.

Quote:

"You don't know me, and you never will."(2)

Summary:

John talks to others mostly, "inside of his head." In most of the book, he is always in his thoughts. When he talks to his algebra teacher, he refers to her as, "Mrs. Moonface," describing her appearance.

John finds someone that he likes, Gloria "Hallelujah," as he says it. He finally gets the courage to say that he likes her, but he lies saying he's on the soccer team.

John is also in band, he plays the tuba. He refers to the tuba as a frog, because how sometimes he would play well and somedays his tuba wouldn't make a sound.

John's father doesn't have a job, his job is illegally stealing television sets and other objects. He announced that he was going to marry John's mother, and that he would become his "father."

John's real father left his family after he was born so John doesn't know a thing about him. He had a dream that he had a wonderful father who never left him. It said that John was named after a toilet brand.

In the book, he is always thinking, "You don't know me." He says that nobody knows him.

John finally started to date Gloria, but she turned out to be nothing that he had expected. Later she finds out that he lied about being in soccer, and then said she would never talk to him again.

John ended up saying, "Mrs. Moonface," to his algebra teacher. He later got suspended for a week because of it.

John gave nicknames to classmates at his school. He named

a band member Violent Hayes, because of how she plays the

saxophone, Billy Beezer because he has a big nose.

Mr. Steenwilly was concerned about John from the beginning, even after he had a meltdown in band. He talked to John saying that he could tell him anything. John said that there was nothing wrong, and emotions just kept piling up inside of him.

What happens...

John ends up going on a date with Violet Hayes at a town dance, and comes home late to his drunk stepfather. He begins abusive behavior and John knows that he should run away. He escapes, but later fights him head on. He gets injured very seriously, and Mr. Steenwilly saves him by calling the cops. His mother comes later at the hospital and is asking him why he never told him about his stepfather's abuse. He told her that she was going to marry him, and he never told her about it. There was a happy ending because John watched the performance with another performer playing his tubo solo. John realized that his mother really does know him.

John is just a kid in high school, who gets abused by his stepfather, and is trying really hard to get by in life.

John is a normal, average teenager. He goes to the mall with Billy, and Andy, which are his two "friends."

Strength is something that most people covet, which is something that John was born with.

“I am sitting at our table that is not a table, trying to eat a turkey dinner that is not a turkey dinner, and

ignore the mayhem.” (6) He is too used to every little strange thing, that he has developed the strength to ignore them.

John has the strength to go to school, even after he deals with his father's abuse.

“Nice try Mrs. Moonface, but you will not trick me

into blurting out a wrong answer by pretending to have begun to try to solve a problem that I have

absolutely no intention of ever trying to solve. Mrs. Moonface, you may be so miserable in your own

pathetic life that you have to try to stump us with these algebra questions from the lowest level of hell

and make fools of us, and destroy our self-esteem, but that doesn't mean that I plan to give in one iota

to your need for self-gratification by sadistic algebra torture of the innocent...” (192)

"You don't know me" is about a teenager named John, who deals with his stepfather's abuse.

His mother works at a factory, and is always coming home tired. There isn't a lot of details about the mother.

By: David Klass