Rash ****

Hautman, Pete. Rash. 2006.

This book is different than Hautman's other books in that it takes place in the future. Bo lives in the USSA (formerly the USA). Now everything is illegal. You can't do anything that might be harmful to yourself, such as play football. No one is allowed to be mean to anyone else, and everyone is medicated. Much of society is incarcerated because everything is illegal. The jails are work camps where all of the factory work is done, such as making frozen pizzas, and de-heading shrimp. Bo ends up in one of these work camps for doing nothing that the average teenager today doesn't already do. He ends up in the far north of Canada in a camp surrouned by hungry polar bears. Bo ends up on an illegal football team that competes with other workcams. Bo continues to talk with his Robot with a futuristic version of a computer or Palm Pilot.

This isn't science fiction, it is speculative fiction. It is a view of what the world may turn into in a hundred years if we continue on the same path we are on right now, with every aspect of our lives being legislated. Readers that like to think about what life will be like down the road might enjoy this book. A casual reader would probably not be interested, but more advanced readers might really get somethign out of it.