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Monday, July 23, 2012
Author: Jody French

Release Date: May 1st, 2012
Publisher: Neverland Publishing
Pages: 180
Age Group: Young Adult
Source: Finished copy for review

Rating: ★★★★★


Red Dirt Rocker is a contemporary and inspirational American dream-come-true story geared toward a Young Adult audience. Based, in part, on the true and incredible adventures of teen MTV musician Forrest French, this hip and vibrant page-turner filled with pop culture references will draw the young reader in as they see the story unfold through the eyes of this straight-edge teenager from a tiny, hick, country town, whose life is about to change forever.
His strict dad raised him to be a football jock—his free spirited mama raised him on classic rock. Small town athlete and teen musician Forrest French finds himself torn, having to decide between public high school, sports and his simple, country life in Coweta, (aka Cow-Town) Oklahoma; his deep Southern roots and strong family ties, or the jet-setting life of an MTV rock star. While dealing with the team bully and facing the fickleness of teen dating relationships, Forrest depends on his faith to keep a cool head. In this story filled with teen angst and teen hopes, Forrest holds fast to his beliefs as he hangs on for the ride of his life in the upside-down, backward and thrilling world of rock-n-roll.
Red Dirt Rocker illustrates to its Young Adult audience that they can be accepted and successful with straight-edge flair, be they athlete, band geek, cheerleader, or aspiring rock star. Experience a shotgun ride right alongside Forrest as he embarks on his rock-n-roll dream and finds that a beautiful heart and strong values may just win over superficial beauty and popularity in the end.

When you're reading a book you always look for that awesome connection with it. But that connection can come in so many different ways. Red Dirt Rocker is an amazing book, and it's truly an inspiration for young and older readers alike. When I was contacted by Jody, she had explained how this story was about her son and I found myself really interested in reading his story after having read the description of the book. I didn't know what to expect, because honestly you don't see Young Adult books like this every day.

As you would expect since this book is inspired by actual events, it feels extremely real. Everything about it, it's not like you're reading a biography though. I will admit that I had thought it might feel a little like that, but it doesn't. It has the life and fun feeling that you'd expect to see in your average Young Adult contemporary novel that is completely fictional. I think it's awesome that his mom wrote this book, and I imagine he played a huge part in helping write it. I just think it's so awesome that she was able to turn his story into a book that could be used to inspire teens and adults to not give up on their dreams and goals.

While this book is based on actual events that happened to Forrest, some of the characters, band name and other things are made up for the purpose of the book and also other reasons. But all of the major events that take place throughout the book, and all of them are quite incredible especially considering how young he was at the time. And just as it says at the the end of the synopsis, I think that it was so great that Forrest really didn't let everything that was going on get to his head. I actually found myself really impressed with how he handled certain situations throughout the book. I don't know if all of the minor things were all factual or not, but regardless of that he really had a great attitude about everything, which is something you don't really see to often with people that get that kind of attention at that age.

I've been following this book on Goodreads since I had spoke to Jody, and I really think it deserves so much more attention than it's getting now. I love coming across books like this, and it feels great to be able to get the word out there for people to check them out. This is honestly a book that I think any Young Adult book reader can enjoy and relate to. Everyone has dreams and goals they want to accomplish, and the hurtles you have to jump over to get there. And it's great to be able to read such an awesome story about a great person that was able to accomplish so much.

I really hope that you will check out this book after you've read this review. It was a great change of pace for me from everything else I had been reading, and I think it just deserves so much more attention than it's getting at the moment. I'd love to hear if you plan to try and get this book, and what you think of the story from what you've read in the synopsis and my review. And if you've read it, I would love to hear what you thought about it.

Thank you to Jody for providing me with a copy of this book for review.

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