Spud
By John Van de Ruit
ISBN: 9780143024842, c.2007
Set in South Africa, this is a hilarious journal of a thirteen-year-old boy’s first year at boarding school is a celebration of reading; for the young man reads constantly. He is also hugely distracted by his oddball family, his apparently emotionally unbalanced girlfriend, a dream girl he meets while starring in the school’s production of Oliver, his classmates, and – of course – sex.