Full Service - Hardcover

The times they are a-changin' . . .  The summer that Paul turns sixteen his mother pushes him to
take a job in town instead of just working on the family farm.
“You need to meet the public,” she says, which is saying a lot
for a woman deeply committed to the tightly knit religious
community to which they belong. And meet the public Paul
does: He meets Kirk, the angry gas station manager; Harry, a
reclusive and kindly gangster; and a family of hippies passing in
a yellow peace van to San Francisco. He also meets beautiful
Peggy, a high school sensation, and dark-haired Dale, her onthe-
side boyfriend who is headed to Vietnam. All of them
come to the station – as well as girls on summer vacation,
tanned and smelling of coconut oil, and ministers from Paul’s
fundamentalist church, who are worried about his soul. As the
summer progresses, Paul learns the secrets of his small
Minnesota town and discovers that he’s ready to have a few
secrets of his own.
With richly developed characters and a flair for arresting
imagery, Will Weaver tells the story of the end of one boy’s
innocence, unfolding at a time when the country as a whole is
undergoing a difficult, deeply disturbing coming-of-age.

WILL WEAVER is the author of the postapocalyptic fantasy
Memory Boy and the popular trilogy about baseball hero Billy
Baggs – Striking Out, Farm Team, and Hard Ball – all three of
which are ALA Best Books for Young Adults. He is a professor
of English at Bemidji State University in Minnesota.