Jimmy D, Sidewinder, and Me

This took a while to work but it grows on you. It's 1940s America with references to the Wild West and told in a series of letters by someone with a Huck Finn voice, if not character. It's full of larger than life scenes and involves the 15-year-old Dumas Monk writing to the judge, from jail, to explain why seven men lay dead around him at the Paradise OK Corral Casino while he held a smoking gun. The episodes, through orphanage, foster 'home', a career as a hustler then ace poker player to the climax, are full of life and humour. Very unusual, great fun and a book to persuade pupils from 3rd year on to read.