"You Don't Know Me" by David Klass is an insightful view into the mind of a disturbed teenager. The author takes us inside the mind of the main character John and allows us to share his life. This book will grab your attention and send you into a tale of creative characters and a boy's struggle to find himself and leave you wanting more.
"You don't know me at all.You don't know the first thing about me. You don't know where I'm writing this from. You don't know what I look like. You have no power over me." John is an emotionally and physically abused fourteen year old boy who feels alone and misunderstood. His feelings of abandonment come from the constant beatings for his mother's boyfriend and the fear that his mother won't believe him if he tells. To deal with the problems in his life, he daydreams and makes up stories for everything in his life. He uses his imagination with the help of a few magazines to give the other characters creative nicknames and cope with tough moments in his life. For instance, he renames his teacher Ms. Moonface, the girl he likes becomes Glory Hallelujah, his big nosed friend is Billy Beezer, his tuba becomes a frog, and he refuses to name his mother's boyfriend, so he refers to hims as "the man who is not my father." Through all his pain John eventually realizes people really do care about him and he is not as alone as he though.
I would recommend this book to a person of any age who enjoys interesting story telling. This book will make you sad at times ans will make you chuckle a little at other times. My only criticism is that I wanted to read more of John's story. Over all I thought this was a great book.