Wow. I don't know exactly what I expected when I picked up this book with the idea of giving it to a student, but I will say I was glad I read it before I gave it to her (and I won't be giving it to her any longer).

I taught a whole unit on book banning, so I'm not about to claim this book should be banned. I will say I don't want the potential headache of giving this book to a student. It's an R rated kind of read - it's pretty explicit and it was more surprising because it's published by Candlewick which always just seemed like a slam dunk safe read for tweens. This is definitely NOT a book for tweens. That in of itself isn't always a problem, but I didn't find real literary merit to the work.

More than that, the titular character just didn't make sense. How he talked and acted didn't seem to mesh with his upbringing. His love of punk rock didn't seem to link with how he spoke. The non-chronological order of the letters (as in letters he mailed, intended to mail or were mailed to him) also made the story difficult to follow. Punkzilla won at least one award, so others saw something I didn't. I'm wondering if they might have mistaken "edgy" for good. ( )

Narrated by Matthew Stadelmann. Jamie is sent to military school after a rebellious period but he runs away to Portland, Oregon, where he runs with other outcast teenagers and engages in petty crimes. He receives a letter from older brother Pete that reveals he is dying and would like to see Jamie again soon. During his bus and hitchhiking journey to Memphis to see Pete, Jamie pens letters to his brother sharing his road experiences and inner thoughts. Narrator Stadelmann sounded vaguely like Ray Romano trying to sound cool which for me took the edge off what should be the edgy voice of a troubled teen. ( )

Ibreally liked the writing in this book. However, it started to feel overly far fetched after a while. Content is also rather explicit for YA. ( )

Ibreally liked the writing in this book. However, it started to feel overly far fetched after a while. Content is also rather explicit for YA. ( )

This was a very gritty read. Punkzilla is a kid named Jamie trying to make his way to Memphis to see his brother before he dies of cancer. The book is written in epistolary. Mostly it's letters that Jamie is writing to Peter but there are also letters from his parents and other brother Edward and a few other select people. He's been living on the streets since he ran away from a military academy his parents sent him to. Neither of the boys get along with their father. When Jamie lives on the streets he steals, attacks people, does drugs and fools around with girls. A lot of this is painful to read about and it feels horrible to watch. However there are shining moments and they are mostly in the form of some of the people he meets. Some of the people that offer him rides and help him out are in fact the scum of the earth, pretty much the way you think they would be, but there are also some great people; like Sam, a kid he meets at the bus station after getting jumped in the bathroom. Sam treats the incident as kind of matter of fact but also helps Jamie as much as he can, but in a way that is so natural that you know Sam doesn't even think of it as helping Jamie. I also love getting the extra insight into Sam through his letter to author of the robot invasion book. There is also Lewis the transsexual that gives him a place to crash for a few days and even offers to drive Jamie to Memphis. These characters are what keep this book from being completely dark and terrible. It's these characters that led me to give it an extra star. ( )