I picked this up with anticipation, hope and at least a little trepidation. Decker has made some incredible, unclassifiable picture books and this lightly illustrated novel represents no little departure from the formula I have loved so much.

I needn't have worried. In the young protagonist Martin, Decker delivers a real, complex and prickly hero. A kid I want to bring home so he can ignore me while I make him a sandwich and tell him to pick up his room. And then he can ignore me and play his guitar with the amp turned all the way up. Oh, wait, I have one kind of like that already. Never mind.

Martin's 17, and he's flailing around a little. He knows some things for sure- maybe more than the average 17-year-old does, but he's lost in more ways than he's found. He stumbles across some pretty wonderful people in the month this book covers, and I think at the end we have seen him grow and change in ways that matter. In ways that may even help him change the world.

I adored Holly, and thought that the awkward miscommunications and dancing back and forth was true-to-life. It made me cringe to read, it was so authentic.

The illustrations, of course, are brilliant. It's what Decker does best. There's a spareness combined with richness that's hard to articulate, but one can almost step into those pen and inks.

Highly recommended. ( )

There's not much plot to this story of a month in the life of a blunt, cynical high school punk-rock guitarist told in diary format but I found it interesting and enjoyable depsite the loose narrative. ( )

There is something about Timothy Decker's THE PUNK ETHIC that I just can't put my finger on. And it's what made me like the book -- that raw energy behind it, the main character Martin Henry's uncertainty and genuine angst, the brevity of the text. These elements wrapped up to make that something that makes THE PUNK ETHIC special, even if I can't quite describe it.

The story, of course, is compelling. Inspired by comments from his English teacher, Martin decides to put on a charity concert at a local coffee shop featuring as many local musicians as he can, hoping he can adopt a landmine and deactivate it. Meanwhile, Martin is struggling to deal with his feelings toward his best friend Holly and with his own ambitions as a musician. I found Martin one of the most true-to-life teen boy characters I've read lately -- full of ideas, passionate, and uncomfortable in his own skin. And despite his awkward social status, and his own presumptions about the people around him, the way Martin, fumbles and all, pulls together a community is inspiring. THE PUNK ETHIC is a short novel, peppered with delicious illustrations by the author, and one that makes for a delicious afternoon read. ( )

Background: Martin is a musician, a student, a son, and a loner. We follow him through about a month of his life, as he comes to terms with random things, goes to school, play music and complains about how everyone sucks. The blurb from Netgalley was such “Challenged by a teacher to actually “do” something, Martin walks a minefield of idiot friends, an unfathomable Dream Girl, high school, and relative pennilessness to prove that he can change the world.”

Review: As a kid that grew up with actual “punk kids” (and was friends with them), I can say that this feels a little more like emo kids wanting to be punk kids but don’t quite grasp all of the requirements; now, having said that, the read was pretty good, very entertaining, and even comical at times. Martin, the protagonist, is learning himself through this journal of sorts, a play by play of his daily life and how he changes day to day. He is a loner, even though he has some buddies and a musician that wants to change the world, weren’t we all at some point? I think that The Punk Ethic was very charged by what it means to be a “punk,” but did not take the leap it needed to actually make the characters seem punk…if that makes sense. They have way too much concern…

On another note, we are thrown into Marin Henry’s life and we don’t really learn a lot about him, except that he is a musician and is now on a mission to change the world, and how he is going to try to do that…but what lead up to this point? A teacher challenges him…as a punk I don’t think that would have held a lot of weight (…just sayin…). I was a little disappointed with the ending, or lack thereof and think that with a few more pages (It’s only 188) it could have improved.

Each day in the log of Martin’s life has a very detailed and beautiful sketch relating to the coming events, and I think this was the redeeming quality for me. Art is wonderful, even if your “Punk” is just whiny and confused. ( )