When I was Joe by Keren David
I loved this book!
It's about a 14 year-old baby-faced boy called Ty (short for Tyler), who lives in the East End. He witnesses a knife attack in the park, which results in the murder of another 14 year-old boy, mugged for his i-pod. After some thought, he decides to go to the Police Station and tell them everything, with his mum (who's a budding lawyer). After answering their countless & repeated questions, his mother asks the Police if it's really necessary that they constantly question him as her exhausted son's only 14. The Police Officer in charge of the investigation replies to her coolly, "So was the victim".
They are eventually allowed to go home (home is a flat above Mr Patel's newsagents, who Ty is very friendly with and has even learnt Urdu from), but they've been there only a short time when a petrol bomb crashes through the window of Mr Patel's shop. That's when the police officer with them decides that they have to pack as quickly as possible & get away immediately & as he believes that Ty & his mum are being threatened by the culprits. Ty & his mother (who he calls 'Nicky', as she always insisted that he call her that and not 'mum', as she was only 16 when she had him & doesn't look more than 25-26 now) have to have their names changed. Ty becomes Joe & Nicky becomes Michelle. A female police officer changes their look entirely. Ty's look becomes rather goth-like and his green eyes are changed to brown, with the help of contact lenses. His hair is dyed black & it's made spiky. He quite likes his new look. He's advised to wear the hood up of his hoodie at all times whenever outside. His mum is turned into a frump, which she is miserable about, as she has always dressed very trendily and shopped from places such as 'New Look'. She is made to look as though she's in her 40's.
They are sped away to a 'boring little town' about 50 miles from London in the middle of the night. Joe has to attend a new school, which is rather different from his strict Catholic school that he used to attend. Here he has the chance to become someone different from Ty - someone more 'with it'. However, his date of birth has to be changed to being a year younger, hence going into Year 8 instead of Year 9, which he finds annoying, as he has started growing body hair & is taller than the average Year 8 boy.
Will he and his mother be safe with their new identities & new location or will the killers find them?
I found this book really gripping & found it very hard to put down. Can't wait to read the sequel to this.....
