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The record-breaking, bestselling sequel to Spud! It's 1991, and John ?Spud? Milton's journey to manhood is still creeping along at a snail's pace. Nearly fifteen, Spud's starting his second year at boarding school and'to his utter mortification'he's still a spud! To make things worse, his dorm mates, the legendary Crazy Eight, have an unusual new member (Roger the cat), and his house is home to a new batch of unruly first years. Spud is soon plagued with women trouble, coerced into expulsion-worthy adventures, and frustrated to find his dreams of fame in tatters after landing the part of the Dove of Peace in a disastrous production of Noah's Ark. Join Spud as he takes another tentative step forward while all around him the madness continues. . . .
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JOHN VAN DE RUIT was born in Durban,South Africa, in 1975. John is an actor, writer, producer and playwright, and is now at work on Spud: The Madness Continues.
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As wild and irreverent as van de Ruit's autobiographical novel Spud (2007), this sequel about a scholarship kid and his crazy roommates in an elite South African boys' boarding school in 1991continues the teen's narrative, told in diary entries. Apartheid may be ending, but the big drama is that, at last, Spud's body and voice are changing: he won't have to sing soprano in the school choir, and maybe he can get gorgeous Mermaid to kiss him. All adults, at home and at school, are idiotic, including the brainless sadistic soccer coach, the brutal housemaster, and Spud's racist dad, who blames Archbishop Tutu for South Africa's problems, but the ridicule of Spud's senile grandmother is a bit too heavy-handed. Even as Spud writes his school essay about Alan Paton, he worries about his pubic hair and what deodorant to use, and whether the setting is the shower or the rugby field, Spud's story will appeal to many teen boys, precisely because it is over the top.--Rochman, Hazel Copyright 2008 Booklist
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