Book Summary: You Don T Know Me

The book "You Don’t Know Me" is not your average book. It has many twists and turns in it. It has to do with a teenager who finds himself in a lot of crazy situations. The main characters are John, Gloria, Violet Hayes, Mr. Steenwilly, the man who is not John’s father (that’s what John calls him), and his mother (she is not names either). You Don’t Know Me is about John and his confusing life. If you don’t read it, you should since it’s an amazing book.

John is a fourteen year old boy who lives with his mother and her boyfriend, the man who is not John’s father. John is the protagonist in this novel. His real father just disappeared and left his mother alone, working in a factory to support herself and John. John has low self-esteem and it looks like he is in a
state of denial since he constantly says things aren’t what they are. For example, he calls the school that he goes to anti-school instead of just calling it school. He calls it this because he believes school is a place where people learn and his “anti-school” doesn’t teach anything. It’s pretty complicated if you ask me. John hates algebra, he plays a tuba which he thinks is a frog, and he has a crush on the prettiest girl in the school named Gloria who he has nicknamed Glory Hallelujah. He gives many people nicknames like Bill Beanman, he named him Billy Beezer on account for his gigantic nose. He calls his algebra teacher (Mrs. Gabriel) Mrs. Moonface because of her pasty complexion. This name will come back to haunt John later on in the book. In the book you can tell that John is a sarcastic guy but you can’t blame him for that. All John wants is the man who is not his father to go away, to get Gloria to go out on a date with him, and basically for his mother to pay more attention to him. All these things happen but they all come with a price. For some of these, the price isn’t all that bad but for one, he may wish he had never asked for this before.

Gloria, or Glory Hallelujah, is a beautiful girl that John likes. Gloria is a popular girl who is always gossiping. He wishes he had the courage to ask her out but he already knows she will probably laugh at him. John’s friend Billy also likes her. John doesn’t really consider Billy his friend. He says that he is a friend that is not a friend. John doesn’t think he’s a friend because friends don’t like their buddies crush. Billy comes up with a plan but can’t go through with it since he was caught stealing at the mall and his parents grounded him. John steals his plan, which was to ask Gloria to go to the basketball game, Gloria would say yes since she loves basketball. He would also ask her to go eat after the game. So he gets his dream date but when Gloria asked John to go to her house something goes terribly wrong and it involves the man who is not John’s father. Read the book to find that out. Violet Hayes is a girl who is in band class with John. John, in his mind, calls her Violent Hayes. He does so because she plays the saxophone which he thinks is a lizard and whenever Violet plays this she looks likes she is grasping the saxophone in a violent manner. Violet is a tall girl who no one really knows. She is a big crush and John but he doesn’t realize this until the end of the book. Mr. Steenwilly is John’s band teacher. He makes up the craziest of song names like the war cry of the ostrich. John finds this awkward since ostriches stick their head in the ground when they are afraid and do not make a sound when in “war.” Mr. Steenwilly wants to help John because he knows that something is going on with him. He turns out to be John’s savior. The man who is not John’s father is John’s future stepdad. He is a mean person, who abuses John and uses him as a tool for his crimes. John doesn’t tell his mom, the police, or Mr. Steenwilly because he is afraid of what would happen to him if he does. At the end of the book he gets what he deserves and Mr. Steenwilly saves the day. John’s mother is the only person John has but she doesn’t pay attention to him that much. She and the man who is not John’s father want to get married but this doesn’t happen due to the end of the book. I don’t want to end it for you so you’ll have to read it.

When John went with Gloria to the basketball game it showed him a lot of things about her. He learned not to go into people’s houses when it’s late and when their dad it really “big.” I think that John learned his lesson since on his next date with Violet Hayes he is more careful. When Johns nicknames everything I think that it’s because he doesn’t want it to be true or wants it to be gone/real like he calls he parents room not his parents room due to the man who is not his father. It’s really confusing to me. When John is in band he plays the tuba and Mr. Steenwilly believes he is an excellent tuba player. John thinks his tuba is a frog and so he doesn’t play well but when Mr. Steenwilly writes a song that John can compare to he plays the song as if he was a master of the tuba. So I think that all John needed was something to relate to and Mr. Steenwilly was put in the book to help John see his life and what he needs to do. There are some critical points in the novel.

The major conflict in this book is when John and the man who is not his father beat’s him and no one knows it.
This is a man versus man conflict. The climax of the book is when John goes out with Violet Hayes and comes home late thinking that the man who is not his father isn’t there but he is there. The man who is not John’s father starts to severely hurt John but he said stop and starting running away. The man who is not John’s father finally catches him outside of the house in the front lawn. Mr. Steenwilly then comes and rescues John. His mother then pays more attention to him. The author’s purpose was to show that people who are abused need to speak up because their teachers are not always going to check up on them and happen to be there when they are getting hurt. It was a good book about a teen and his mishaps. I recommend this book for people who are quiet and for kids who are in seventh to twelfth grade. It is a book with lots of hilarious parts, sad parts, and exciting situations that will keep your heart pumping for more. To sum this book up, I guess you can say that it’s a book about a teen who can slip through the cracks and lose almost everything but wind up having the things he wanted
most.