Introduction of Nothing to Lose and Alex Flinn, with Summer Reading Questions

Over the summer I read Nothing to Lose by Alex Flinn. It was about a boy named Michael who suffers from domestic violence from his stepfather Walter. He runs away after his mother is put on trial for the murder of Walter, only to be haunted by his past and brought back to his home to do what is right.

Kaley M

Nothing to Lose by Alex Flinn
Social issues: Runaway children, family violence

The Book:

1. The main character is Michael Daye, a seventeen year old aspiring football player who runs away from home after the killing of his abusive stepfather. Michael is athletic, protective of his mother, and independent.

2. In the beginning of the book, many main characters such as Michael, Michael’s mom, Lisa, and Michael’s stepfather, Walter are introduced as well as Michael’s current living situation (traveling with a carnival) and his past living situation (living with his mother and stepfather, who beats and threatens Michael’s mother). In the middle of the book, Michael’s life with his mother and Walter is explored, and it is found that Walter is extremely abusive and is also ruining Michael’s life along with his mother’s. The middle of the book also profiles Michael’s relationships with his friends at school, his mother, and his girlfriend Kirstie. In the end of the book, Michael seeks help with proving his mother innocent and admits that it was actually him who killed Walter, not his mother. Michael’s mother’s charges are released and him and his mother go back to living with each other.

3. I think that Alex Flinn is trying to communicate the importance of moving on from past experiences and letting go of bad memories in life. She shows how Michael overcomes the abuse Walter put him and his mother through and how they manage to set the recollections of Walter into the past.

The Issues:

1. Family violence affected Michael, Michael’s mother, and Walter throughout Nothing to Lose. It affected Michael’s mom because she was the one receiving the brunt of it. Family violence affected Walter in his childhood as well as his adult life; he grew up with violence in his home, therefore he used violence in his own household and ended up dead. Family violence also affected Michael; he quit the football team, cut off his relationships with his friends, let his grades drop, ran away from home, and even was lead to murder because of it.

2. When Michael’s mother is in the hospital because of Walter beating her, the issue of family violence seems real and important when Michael is talking with the nurse about domestic violence. Family violence also seems real and important right before Walter’s death, when the author describes Michael’s emotions as he comes home to when he picks up the fire poker. Alex Flinn makes these issues immediate and personal by describing emotions relevant with her readers, so they can relate (at least somewhat) to how Michael is feeling.