Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer

Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer by John Grisham
Hodder and Stoughton - May 25, 2010
263 pages

Theodore Boone is only thirteen years old, but he's a lawyer. Well, he thinks that he is. He knows every policeman, judge, lawyer, and court clerk in the city. When a murder shakes the town of Strattenburg, where Theo lives, the defendant is about to walk free. A witness has seen the crime in action and has enough evidence to convict the defendant, but as an illegal immigrant, he is petrified of the police coming to arrest him. Theodore Boone now must decide what he should do to make sure that justice is served.

This novel is riddled with inconsistencies, sexism, and false suspicions about eighth graders. Theodore Boone can name off all of the intricacies of Animal and Bankruptcy Courts, but yet has no clue of certain criminal court terms despite all the time he claims to have spent there. Theodore's school is segregated between boys and girls, and only the boy's Government class is allowed to watch the trial. The eighth grade girls don't seem to have any idea of what to do and rely on Theo to help them with their lives. Grisham thinks that no eighth graders would be interested in having boyfriends or girlfriends and that "they were assured they'd think differently later". What's later? Senior year of college? However, later, when the popular girl needs help in Animal Court, it's revealed that she has a new boyfriend every month. I now point to the beginning, where it says this book was published in 2010. In close to present-day Strattenburg, only half of eighth graders have phones, and they're all flip phones. With all of these things, there's little time to reveal an issue many readers had with this; there is no ending. In fact, almost nothing happens through the course of the book. So little happens that to fill pages the Animal Court and Bankruptcy Court subplots are thrown in. The second book is an entirely different plot. So apparently "no ending" is the ending.

Grade: D-