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In a dark parking lot outside an amphitheater, crowds are gathering for tailgate parties. A young guitarist climbs up on the hood of a white pickup truck, pulls an old battered fedora down over his eyes, and begins to belt out "Night Train," a driving, electric song, while his brother works the crowd, selling tapes. The buskers are Daniel Friesen, 16-year-old blues man, and his 18-year-old brother Jens, a new--not used--car salesman. But Jens is more of an ex-salesman now, since he was fired two days ago. The pickup truck belongs to his ex-boss. These brothers are on the road and on the run, desperately trying to earn $5,000 to repay a shifty music producer. With them they carry not onlyguitars and amps, but a heavy load of love, resentment, and fury toward each other. When Jens discovers that Daniel drinks too much and has a sexy 22-year-old girlfriend, his protectiveness and jealousy boil over. His anger is exacerbated by the secret knowledge that Daniel will always be sure of who he is, while Jens can't even be certain that he's their father's son.

With Drive, Canadian young adult novelist Diana Wieler (known in the U.S. for Bad Boy) has written an intense story of two young men testing themselves against the world--together and alone. Older teens, and particularly fans of Rob Thomas's Rats Saw God, will be entranced, intrigued, and enlightened. (Ages 13 and older) --Patty Campbell ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Couldn't put this one down...
"Drive" can be summed up in one word: excellent.Though I found it entertaining for an adult, the story contains excellent lessons for a younger audience.Jens and Daniel confront real world problems and face relationship issues recognizable to any teen.

The story is well-paced and moves along while still delivering all the important details -- at times it almost feels as though the reader is riding along in the truck with the boys.

"Drive" reminds me a great deal of S.E. Hinton's best work.I strongly recommend it to anyone.

Diana Wieler does it again
Already available in Canada, Diana Wieler's latest book offers another gripping and immediate story.This time, a roadtrip with two brothers, very different people, trying to work towards a common goal, and learning alot about themselves and each other into the bargain.This author has amagic gift when it comes to portraying people--Jens and his brother are soreal that they take you along with them for the drive.I would recommendthis book for all ages. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Realistically Exciting
Bad Boy is a great book for kids or teens to read because it deals with things that the youth would relate to. Two best friends A.J. and Tully both made the Tripple A Cyclone hockey team, that they have wanted to be on for years. They have both grown up pretty violent and rough. Everything was starting to come together when A.J. found out that someone he nows is gay. This is a very modern book. If you like hokey and like to read very realistic books, I know this will be one of your favorits.

Bad Boy
this book was good but it had a few down sides to but when he found out that his best friend was gayhe was really down in the dumps. but he was happy that he made the team that really wanted to play for. the book was over all good. this book also coght my eye because i am some what a bad boy some times.

Award-winning and powerful
This book is the winner of eight awards - including those from the American Library Association, the Canadian Library Association and Canada's most prestigious award, the Governor General's Award for Children's Literature. And it's obvious why.

The Canadian Children's Book Centre says, "Wieler's characters are well rounded and real. Even minor figures like Coach Landau are fully alive on the page. Main characters particularly change and grow, their reactions and development interesting and plausible. At the close of Bad Boy the reader knows that A.J., Tully and Summer will continue to grow not only in relation to one another but in their own right as well. .. (Wieler) has created one of the best young adult novels to be written by a Canadian, a book which is gripping and thoughtful and moving. Bad Boy is controversial...but adolescent readers who are kept from it will be deprived of one of the most important reading experiences of this or any other year"

This is a powerful book, and highly recommended. Both my teenagers loved it - one son and one daughter -- and couldn't put it down. Diana Wieler has become a real favourite in our house.

Plastic
Didn't feel any compassion for the characters. Its sad. The content and subject matter could have been moving, but the characters were very predictable and very flat.

A great teen novel for the gay jock in your family
One of few novels about teenage athletes that deals with gay subject matter, Bad Boy is one of my favorites, a sweet and touching story that also deals with related issues of violence and growing up. When my young cousin came out and suffered some problems on his football team, I gave him a copy. He found it inspirational. He doesn't play hockey, but learned how to balance being athletic with dealing with his sexuality. - Stan G. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The reasons why this book is dereving to be called "Garbage"
Ran van isn't like other kids. He is a video gamer with powers. He is the best video gamer until Iceman he meets iceman. He now has a worthy opponent. Ran Van a worthy opponent started bad and just kept on getting worse and worse. Diana Wiele needs to create a more complete plot. I have not read any of her other books but she puts in tiny morsels of detail in this book. It may be just because she is not good at writing sci-fi. This was a book that was enjoyable to read. Most readers out there will probably not enjoy themselves while reading this poor piece of writing.

In this book a kid who goes to high school loves video games. He plays a lot. At the beginning of this book he had just moved into a new down and was living with his grandmother since his mom and dad are dead. At the new town he goes to the arcade and meets Iceman. Iceman is another video gamer who challenges Ran Van, who is the main character, to beat him in the high scores. Ran Van accepts his challenge and the fight begins. Ran Van then starts to notice that he has super powers. Ran Van then starts to try and help people but usually just makes the situations worse. A few weeks after Ran Can moved in Iceman starts to try and beat him up. Ran is surprised to see the Iceman also has super powers. They then become rivals with one another.

Diana Wiele should create a more complex plot. This book had a horrible plot about a kid who plays video games and meets a kid named iceman who keeps on trying to beat him up. The readers will not at all attached to the characters in this book and will not care if one of them died, since. They will know that these are imaginary characters and never get the feeling that they might be out there somewhere . I thought that this book was badly written and it seemed that nobody who likes reading would like this book. It may just be my opinion but there was not enough detail. My personal taste usually has large quantities of detail but this book was lacking in that category. This book had no excitement; even the battle scenes were dull. The author failed to catch the attention of the reader at any point in time in this book. There was a bit too much emotion at parts, and when the characters were sad I did not feel for them at all. There were not very many plot twists and the ones that were in the book did not seem interesting to me. I never had to think while reading this book. Usually when I read a book even I do not like it, there seems to be one aspect of it that is fairly good. This book had nothing good about it. This seemed like the type of book that a person who hates to read would be able to read but would not enjoy. The only good thing about this book was that it was short.

This book was a big disappointment. I was not expecting much, but found out that this turned out to be way below my already low expectations. I could feel the plot being rushed while reading this book. It may just be me but I think that there was nothing good about this poorly written book. I do not recommend this to any one who wants to have a good time reading. It was difficult for the readers to get a perfect picture of the town and all of the characters because there was not that much detail. It was also difficult to completely understand many of the characters personalities. This book seemed to be geared towards middle school kids. This was a bad idea since the writing seems to be better for kids in grade school. Whoever is reading this should not pick up Ran Van a Worthy Opponent. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Favorable review of the last volume of the RanVan trilogy
Wieler is one of today's best YA authors. She hooked me in with Bad Boys (still one of the best YA novels I've read about teens dealing withhomosexuality and homophobia) and the RanVan trilogy does not disappoint.This is the final volume in which RanVan must resume his place as knight tohelp his nemesis, Lee Dahl, from RanVan: Worthy Opponent. He's also fallenin love, and this time it's for real. The language is what makes Wieler'sstories. She has a great ear for teen-speak and for situations that aretrue to her characters. For teenage boys who love video games and who are looking for good adventure, RanVan is your man.

The best of the RanVan trilogy
In the third volume of the RanVan trilogy, Rhan is 18 and has moved away from home in Thunder Bay to Calgary, where he is enrolled in Cinema, Television, Stage, and Radio at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.Rhan wants to become a television cameraman.In "Magic Nation" Rhan runs into his old adversary, Lee Dahl, the Iceman, who draws Rhan into a world of corruption, racism, and murder.Rhan also meets a girl, Jen, and tries to sort out his first "grown-up" relationship.The magic that was present in the first two books is still here in "Magic Nation", and Rhan is still struggling to understand what his special powers are and what they mean.

If you enjoyed the first RanVan books, you should definitely read this one.Diana Wieler's novels should be read by all, teens and adults alike, because the characters are strong, realistic, and appealing, with all the strengths and weaknesses that we see in ourselves.When you finish, you will be sad that the RanVan books are only a trilogy!

This book definitely deserves a 10! ... Read more