Breaking Rank

Happy!!  Breaking Rank is now back in print.  It’s an e-book.  But it’s also in paperback, for sale at major online bookstores. This book, an ALA Best Book, has been retired for WAY too long.  It went through five hardback editions and several paperback.  Once upon a time, if a publisher didn’t make things available, you were just out of luck.  Now, we have the wonderful alternative of ebook form, which can make pretty much any book  immortal.  Take a look.  $2.99 at Amazon.  Well worth the price.

I had moved on to other stories, and no secondary publishers had stepped forward to pick up this book.  Somehow, in my mind, the story faded—I forgot that it had been an ALA Best Book, that it had been on award lists and garnered some pretty fine reviews.  When I got out the manuscript and began to read it in preparation for it for its new E-life, I found myself falling in love with the characters all over again.  This is a good book.  A dang good book.  So I’m proud to present it to you now.

The Formal Hype:

To Baby, the outside world is a cold and lonely place. He has lived most of his life as a member of the silent, enigmatic group that calls itself the Clan—and he has been scorned and feared by classmates and neighbors.

It’s up to Casey to see to it that Baby isn’t alone when he’s the only member of his mysterious group to be placed in their high school’s honors classes. She’s his guide into the mainstream—a pretty, well-liked girl who wants to do the right thing. Like the rest of the Clan, Baby has never before participated in school. Casey helps him find a path; she makes it possible for him to see the Clan with a sharp outside light.

But what Baby is doing threatens both the Clan and the Cribs—the popular kids in letter jackets—and it isn’t long before Baby’s and Casey’s familiar worlds are shattered.

Kristen D Randle has written a story that is absorbing and unusual, insightful and outspoken, about two teenagers whose lives become intertwined—and a collision that forces them to make difficult choices.

Breaking Rank cover

 

Reviews

An ALA Best Book (2000).

A Booklist – Top Ten pick of the year for a ripping good romantic novel. (October 1999)

Also included on numerous state and library award and recommended lists.

Booklist (Starred review)

May 1999

When 17-year-old Casey Willardson agrees to tutor Thomas Fairbairn, family and friends think she’s crazy–and in danger. After all, Thomas is a member of the Clan, the enigmatic group of young men that keeps its distance from outsiders, even in school. But as Casey and Thomas get to know each other, labels and preconceptions fall away, resulting in a deep understanding of shared human experiences and emotions, and ultimately a rewarding love that challenges both teens’ long-held beliefs.This modern, insightful Romeo and Juliet story is a rare and notable contribution to the teen fiction genre. The alternating points of view and Randle’s taut, poetic prose provide remarkable character depth and complexity. Thomas, in particular, is a fascinating character, whose conversations embody the joy of learning and incorporate the works of classic philosophers and writers in ways that may show readers the relevance and rewards of learning the masters.  Gritty, smart, and realistic, the novel perceptively explores issues of religion, sex and sexual abstinence, peer pressure, and integrity with grace and compassion. Despite some religious overtones, there is no preaching here, only a well-communicated respect for making comfortable personal life choices, and allowing others the opportunity to do the same. A story of morality without judgment, this will encourage teens to look beyond appearances and deep within their own hearts. –Shelle Rosenfeld

 

The School Library Journal:

Grade 9 Up-Thomas Fairbairn is Clan: one of a group of young men who dress in black, don’t talk to outsiders, or participate in school. Flaunting Clan rules, Thomas seeks knowledge outside of his group and transfers into the honors program. Casey Willardson, an A student, is enlisted as his tutor and steps out of the security of her suburban in-crowd to help him. Both teens become renegades in the eyes of their peers; group conflict erupts as their friendship grows beyond books. Unfortunately, females are only seen as sex objects in the all-male Clan and Thomas’s failure to consummate his relationship with Casey leads in part to his expulsion from the group. Casey’s own beliefs are strained as Thomas challenges society and learns the costs of conformity. Reminiscent of  The Outsiders and West Side Story, Randle’s novel is compelling reading. Romance, gang in-fighting, and high school classroom and social scenes are realistically detailed. Predictably, the final fight between jocks and Clan occurs under the freeway bridge. Nevertheless, powerful writing and a suspenseful, action-driven story will grab teen readers.

Gail Richmond, San Diego Unified Schools, CA Cpyrt: 1999 Reed Business Information

 

Horn Book—March/April 1999

In Randle’s intriguing coming-of-age novel, the Clan . . . “like an odd, fervent religion,” and few people in seventeen-year-old Casey’s town willingly interact with its silent, stony-faced members. The uneasy social balance that has existed in the community is thrown off when Clan member Thomas, a.k.a. Baby, is placed in the honors program at school, and Casey agrees to tutor him and help smooth his transition to the mainstream. Cautiously they forge a “working relationship” in spite of their differences and strong disapproval from the Clan (who lock down upon the traditional educational system and on fraternization with outsiders) and from Casey’s peers and family (who worry about her safety). Telling the story from both Baby’s and Casey’s point of view, Randle draws us in through her realistic portrayal of the pressures the two feel from within and without, as well as the attraction they begin to feel toward each other. . .  these two likable, well-developed characters and the dangerous conflict that surrounds them will keep readers engaged. A sensitively told story that resonates with loss and, in the end, hope.–Kitty Flynn

 

Kirkus—April 1999

In a Romeo and juliet story with a new twist and a happier ending, Randle compassionately explores the duel feelings of exhilaration and anguish that come from disassociating one’s self from an all-encompassing, powerful peer group. . . Randle has written an enthralling story that leaves readers with much to contemplate.

 

Publisher’s Weekly

May 17, 1999

For 12 years, the black clad members of “the Clan” have slunk through school, driving teachers crazy by calmly refusing to work or to speak to anyone. But one day Thomas, aka “Baby” to his Clan fellows, clandestinely takes a placement test and is identified as gifted. Over her parents’ objections, Casey, a good student friendly with the jock/cheerleader set, responds to the guidance counselor’s request for her help and becomes Baby’s after-school tutor.  . . . Baby and Casey gradually find a common bond and . . .[set] in motion a chain of events that causes each of them to reexamine who they are, where they stand in their social milieus and how they will respond to their peers’ expectations. The characterizations and group dynamics are compelling, the romance believable and the plot gripping as events come to a violent crescendo. Randle (The Only Alien on the Planet) is adept at conveying ingrained prejudices as well as the frustration and alienation that lead some youths to forsake the “straight” world for a more friendly and accepting one of their own making. A vivid, resonant contemporary tale.

2 thoughts on “Breaking Rank

  1. I am inexpressibly delighted to have found your website, Author-of-Breaking-Rank. I read it in high school and it has lingered in my brain ever since. A few years past University, and here I am, having spent an hour and a half online trying to lock down the title of the book that lives so vividly in my mind.

    I read….rather a lot, and could not remember the title, other than the word “Breaking”. I DO remember reading it tucked under my desk in art class, absolutely mesmerized. Juliette Marillier’s books do the same thing- when I am forced to look up from the page, I’m disoriented, as though I have actually been somewhere else, as though most of my brain is still there, with the characters. I certainly remember that. You created a wonderfully detailed world with magnificent, nuanced ideas. “The Clan” is such a fascinating creation, and the stakes are so high for anyone who disrupts the status quo.

    So happy I found you- now I can read it again, and your other books too!

    • Jasmine – and I am delighted you found me and left a comment! “A few years past university” – yeah, that’s the way I feel about myself, too. But I’m betting I’m more “past” than you are. That the story was stuck in your head for so long – I am very pleased with myself. And I love the picture of you tucking that book under your desk (I used to do that when I worked for my dentist – I was the receptionist, waiting for the phone to ring, so I didn’t feel too cheaty). But in ART? I trumped art? I know that feeling of disorientation. Like my husband says about movies like Return to Me: you just wanna go eat at that restaurant, because you think you already have – and you know those people so well.

      I’ve spent the last two weeks hacking and coughing and leaning over a hot computer, wrestling with inDesign so I can get Breaking Rank set up for print on demand with Createspace – and there it will finally be, once again, on Amazon. A little pricey, print on demand – but alive!! And I set up my own ebooks, too – which is amazingly magical.

      I hope you do read the others, kiddo. But please write and tell me what you think about them? In the old days, it was rare to hear from people who’d read things – but now, we can actually have conversations about the stuff. It’s SO COOL. I have a Facebook author page, too, where I post when I finally have something to announce. And I hope you come back to read this – –