Hard Time

When were born, were sentenced to, like, life. And some of usId be a prime exampleare made to do hard time.&quote; So says Annie Ireland, sentenced to a life of trying to live up to her parents never-ending expectations. For a long time the only person she can count on for unconditional support is her best friend, Arby, known to the horror and delight of many as The Roach Boy. And then Pantagruel Primo, Esquire, comes into Annies life, and just like that, she has another friend, this one ageless and with special powersand not looking like himself (at all), at first. Suddenly, as a result of a story she writes for English class, Annie and her friends find themselves sentenced to five days in the county jail and then to an indefinite stay at the Back to Basics Center, a wilderness school for problem kids. After a series of comic misadventures they manage to escape its bizarre, unpleasant clutches, and Annie comes to realize shes unique and strong and lovable, and that it doesnt matter what some other people think. Delightfully ridiculous (but also timely), part fantasy and part real life, Hard Time is a humorous, sophisticated tale about one girls struggle to be who she is rather than the person some adults keep wanting her to become.