Good Behavior (by Nathan L. Henry)

At age 16, Nathan Henry spent a year in county jail, most of it spent waiting on his trial for armed robbery.

He really wasn't a bad kid. Not the kind of kid whose parents just know when he's born that he's trouble. But he became the kind of kid nightmares are made of--drugs, violence, sex, and some seemingly psychotic tendencies (what do you call killing gophers because you can?). Add in a painfully rural small town childhood, a father forcing his own psychoses on Nate, and a mental health system that "healed him up, then shipped him out" without a second glance. But Nate's not a lost cause. And I think that's the real lesson for adults--that not every kid who seems to be really is unreachable and unredeemable. They can be salvaged, can be turned, even when we don't try.

Nate's story is gritty and compelling. This was not merely a page-turner, it was a page-gripping read that I didn't put down until I was finished. Nate's story, told in alternating chapters (the life that led to jail and the months he spent there reflecting), is reality. While some may think it an extreme case of teenage reality, I think it will be altogether too familiar to many

Nathan's story of his year in jail and the life that led him there combine to create a powerful portrait of an American youth gone bad—and a moving story of redemption.
(From the Bloomsbury site blurb.)

This title is not yet available for purchase. I received an ARC while at TLA this year. The book is due to be published in July 2010, from Bloomsbury Publishing. Because it has not yet been finalized and published, there is no cover art to share.