Hazard

Frances O'Roark Dowell

• Publisher: Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781481424677
• eBook ISBN: 9781481424684

A kid filled with rage, suspended from the football team for unsportsmanlike conduct, and his father, newly home from the war in Afghanistan, reckon with the injuries they’ve caused to others and themselves in this unflinching middle grade novel in verse about love and forgiveness.

Hazard’s a military kid, best known for his prowess at football, and his short fuse. His dad’s been in Afghanistan, third tour. The worry and the pressure over school and his dad are getting to Hazard until one day, the fuse sets off and the repercussions have him benched for six games and assigned to go to therapy. Which is where his dad is as well, at Walter Reed Medical Center, because he’s home now—well, most of him. Hazard’s dad’s now learning to walk with a prosthetic, but that’s not his primary injury. His worst wound is a moral injury: what he did on the battleground that he may never be able to forgive himself for.

As part of Hazard’s therapy, he has to trace back the causes of his own anger by tracing back his father’s journey, through letters and emails and texts, so that he can come to terms with what he himself has done—his own moral injury—and help his father overcome his own.

To begin:

A text from Haz to Jax

J

Jackson >

Sun, Sept 20, 2:14 PM

What up Jax

What up

Check it out

Keep in Touch:

Staying Present

Through

Guided

Journaling

Haz

Dude

What tha

It’s a workbook I gotta do cuz like I’m 6

Good times bro

It gets better

Begin at the Beginning

Was there a particular event or situation that caused you to seek therapy?

Sucks to be you

Dude you have no idea

Delivered

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Date: September 21, 8:04 AM

Subject: Assignments

Dear Dr. Barth:

Workbook assignments attached.

See you this afternoon at 4.

Haz

P.S. Are you sure this workbook is basic enough?

Maybe they could add a few more pix

of kids chewing on their pencils

and looking all thoughtful and crap.

Those were friggin’ awesome!

Attachment: WorkbookQuestions1-2.docx

WorkbookQuestions1-2.docx

Workbook: Keep in Touch: Staying Present Through Guided Journaling

Q: Was there a particular event or situation that caused you to seek therapy?

The real story is this: the hit was clean.

I know what Coach thought he saw,

but he caught it from the wrong angle.

Besides, some refs will throw a flag

just cuz they’re bored—

anybody’ll tell you that.

And, dude, I didn’t “seek” therapy.

Don’t put words in my mouth

you’d never hear me say.

Q: How do you feel about being in therapy?

Like it’s a waste of time.

Like if we’re going to do this thing,

let’s get it done. Twelve weeks?

Not gonna happen, son.

Coach said I had to do this,

but he didn’t say jack about three months.

I’ll give you one—that puts me back

on the field by October 20.

Come on, dude, chill.

I’ll write in your workbook,

I’ll “map out the facts” that help

“pull the story together,”

just like you said.

I’ll do it fast and I’ll do it right.

I’ll write you a whole damn book.

But no way I’m calling you Walter,

no matter how many times you ask.

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Date: September 23, 9:02 PM

Subject: It Goes Both Ways

Dear Dr. Barth:

I looked you up.

I mean, if you’re gonna know everything

about me, then I ought to know

at least a thing or two about you.

You went to East Carolina? I guess that’s okay,

but dude:

you kinda overdid it with the degrees.

You got three sets of letters after your name—

BA, MS, PhD—

and you spend your life talking to kids?

Seems like a waste of an education to me.

But what do I know?

I’m not even in high school yet—

next year, if they let me in after all this crap.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not dumb.

I make mostly As and Bs,

a C here and there

so I don’t look like I’m showing off.

I’ll probably go to college on a scholarship—

football, that is.

You ever go to games when you were a Pirate?

On your page, it says you graduated college in 2003.

Dude. That’s the year East Carolina was 1–11.

That’s just sad.

I bet you walked around campus

with your head

hung low.

Maybe that’s why you do what you do.

You’ve been through some bad times yourself.

Me, I’m up and running and ready to go.

Catch me if you can, Mr. Pirate Man.

Haz

P.S. You gotta admit I’m good with the lines.

Surprised you, am I right?

No lie, there’s more to me

than pads and cleats.

You might think you’ve got me figured out,

but dude: you don’t.

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Date: September 24, 4:36 PM

Subject: Workbook Assignment

Dear Dr. Barth:

What’d I tell...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Hazard
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Copyright