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Rash | 
 enlarge | Author: Pete Hautman
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Category: Book
List Price: $8.99
Buy New: $4.55
You Save: $4.44 (49%)
New (26) Used (9) from $4.55
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 232706
Media: Paperback
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0689869045
EAN: 9780689869044
ASIN: 0689869045
Publication Date: December 4, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: brand new from the publisher
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Consumption of alcohol: Illegal. Football and other "violent" sports: Illegal. Ownership of guns, chain saws, and/or large dogs: Illegal. Body piercings, tattoos: Illegal. It's late in the twenty-first century, and the United Safer States of America (USSA) has become a nation obsessed with safety. For Bo Marsten, a teenager who grew up in the USSA, it's all good. He knows the harsh laws were created to protect the people. But when Bo's temper flares out of control and he's sentenced to three years of manual labor, he's not so down with the law anymore. Bo's forced to live and work in a factory in the Canadian tundra. The warden running the place is totally out of his mind, and cares little for his inmates' safety. Bo will have to decide what's worse: a society that locks people up for road rage, or a prison where the wrong move could make you polar bear food.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 A Football Book in Dystopian Wrapping March 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Dystopia. It's the opposite of Utopia. It's a futuristic world where best intentions bring horrific results. And our protagonist, Bo Marsten, is stuck in one in the year 2074 in a country called the United Safer States of America (USSA), where just about everything with a whiff of danger is illegal.
But don't be fooled, especially if you are a teenage boy who likes football better than reading. This is really a football book, plain and simple, because football is illegal in the USSA, and when Bo gets sent to prison in the Canadian tundra for his violent temper (punching high school classmates -- not to mention calling them names -- is illegal, you see), he winds up on the warden's special "gold shirts" football team.
Turns out, Bo Marsten likes football. He likes hitting and running like the wind to avoid GETTING hit. The wrinkle here is that the football field at his prison is fenced in so that the polar bears of the tundra don't get in, and if the ball goes over the fence, then you have to go get it -- before the bear gets you, that is.
RASH is a bit predictable, but this is a small matter considering its strength is its fast-paced plot tailor-made for reluctant reading boys who love sports (and especially football). The heart of the book is the middle section, at the tundra prison, where you will meet wonderful characters like the warden, Elwin Hammer, a beefy menace who calls his charges "nails" (to be hammered into place if they act up, you see). Then there's Bo's 300-pound roomie, Rhino. His special play is the "nose dozer," where you give Rhino the ball and let him slowly gain momentum while opposing players try to tackle him. Lastly, there are the Bears. And I don't mean the kind from Chicago.
The beginning high school scenes and the anti-climactic final section are not as thrilling as the heart of the book, but that won't deter young readers. Trust me when I say that there's less "rash" and more "dash" to this book -- as in, the dash of a fullback heading upfield for a touchdown while an opposing prison football team gives pursuit. If you're a boy who likes football, check this book out. If you're a parent or teacher of a boy who likes football (but not reading so much), check this book out FOR him. You (and he) won't be disappointed.
Great book October 1, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
this was a great book it's funny to hear an idea of what the future will be like and what the people living in the future think of our lives right now. Great book by Pete hautman looking foward to reading more of his books
A Futuristic Thriller August 26, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Rash by Pete Hautman is a great futuristic adventure that is impossible to quit reading. In this book the United States government has legislated safety in every aspect of life.
There were so many laws concerning safety that you could not even run track without wearing all kinds of silly pads and liners to prevent scrapes and chafing. You were required to take medicine called Levoular to slow your reflexes and give you more time to think about your actions. Is this what our society will be like one day?
Bo Marsten comes from a family with the genes of a temper problem, and as you can imagine it would be very hard to live in an environment like this with this kind of problem. Because of various events involving him getting in trouble he is forced to work at a Mc Donald's Pizza factory in Canada (which has now been annexed by the country) instead of going to prison.
While at the factory he made the Goldshirts football team. Now it is illegal to play football. There is no way for him to back out of playing but why would he want to? There is no way to get caught, because the head of the factory started up the team. And players also get some extra privileges. This is a funny part about the book and a great reason to read it.
One of the really amusing parts of the story is when the factory head, also the coach, talks about "destroying" the Red shirt team at the rival Coca Cola plant nearby. He says this so many times that it reminds you how opposite from society this guy really is. Beside from being in a jail kind of environment this sounds like a very fun place to be, if you were a Goldshirt. Although Bo was a Goldshirt he still wanted to find a way back to his old life.
Read the book to find out what happens next. Why would anybody not want to read this book? It is full of entertainment, funny, not hard to read, and a taste of hopefully what our future will not be.
Terrific read June 4, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Hautman's Godless remains one of my favorite teen books, and this one is almost as good. Like many other great science fiction novels, this is social commentary in disguise: Hautman conjures up a sinister future world that has taken some of our current obsessions to extremes, yielding nightmarish results. While I usually think the age recommendations for fiction are too low, the recommendation for this one is too high: middle schoolers will enjoy this book too.
harrison bergeron meets holes November 25, 2006
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Bo Marsten is living in the tail end of this century in the "USSA", a place where beer and french fries are outlawed, a good percent of the population is on a Ritalin-like drug, sports can only be played with maximum protective clothing, and manual labor is performed by people arrested for "rage" crimes. Bo's speech and action will seem like a normal teen's to the reader, but he winds up incarcerated for fighting with a classmate over a girl (using his fists, not weapons). He is placed in a work camp run by McDonald's and set in the frigid wilds of Canada. Like "Holes," the wardens are corrupt, the other inmates aggressive, and the environment punishing. Bo manages to become part of an elite group of boys who play football, the old-fashioned kind that is outlawed in the rest of the country. Meanwhile, an A1 program that Bo created in school has mutated and acquired a "life" of its own. The creation, called a web ghost, may just be able to spring Bo from his sentence early.
The book is an original, thought-provoking read. Just a decade ago, kids didn't wear bicycle helmets; could mandatory law be possible in the future? The only flaw is that apart from Bo and the A1, there is minimal character development. In "Holes" the relationship between Stanley and Zero helped give Stanley's character more depth. I also wanted more backstory on Bo. Had he really always had a bad temper, or did it develop when he became a teenager? Did the government/school do other things besides prescribe meds for people who were potential discipline problems?
How did he deal with his father leaving the first time? But I guess those questions were outside the scope of the book.
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