Recommended Reading: BAD IDEA

Griffin Smith’s parents are divorced. His mother is now married to a mediocre novelist,
his dad has the cliché..er..fiance that’s 18 years his junior. Griffin Smith, though, is ok. He’s perfectly all right
with the goings-on in his family, as evidenced by his involvement with church youth group and his acceptance to a
college in California—a college he’ll get to via a road trip with his dad, the cliché, his best friend, and his little
brother.
But, as with thousands of teenagers whose parents are divorced, Griffin Smith is not
ok. He’s certain his parents care enough to provide him with boundaries and punishment
when he strays—it’s just that they’re too busy dealing with their own pain. So
he does it for them, burning himself in punishment when he secretly gets drunk or
takes a handful of painkillers, even preemptively scorching his skin if he knows he’s
headed to a party.
Griffin’s secret life, however, will be hard to conduct on a week-long road trip to California.
Close quarters and long hours may be just enough of a breeze for Griffin’s
house of cards to come tumbling down.
Called, “The Catcher in the Rye for the new generation—only funnier
and with a point,” brothers Todd and Jedd Hafer have perfectly captured
the satiric humor and dry wit of a teenager caught in a world not of his making, yet
desperate to exert control.
Jedd’s work with severely troubled teens at Children’s ARK for the past twelve years
gave him the material and voice needed to write a book hurting teens won’t put
down. The average kid at Children’s ARK has been kicked out of five places for bad
behavior. He has broken up gang fights, saved kids from dying of overdoses and
prayed all night with kids who were suicidal. He understands the driving forces and
the pain behind young people's behavior so well that he is in high demand as a
trainer and presenter on crisis intervention and de-escalating angry, aggresive youth.
Todd Hafer is a veteran writer with over 30 books to his credit. He recently worked
on Battlefield of the Mind for Teens with Joyce Meyer which is currently on the best-seller list. Todd is an editorial
director at Hallmark and has overseen many of Hallmark's most successful projects.