Inside [Paperback]

...profoundly disturbing ... I had to put the book aside and return to it on more than three or four occasions. -- Inside Time January 2010 Gerard McGrath

Well researched book aimed at older teenagers ...illustrates the grim reality of prison life for young people and is no easy ride. -- Bookseller's Choice 16 October 2009 Marilyn Brocklehurst

Unflinching portrayal of life in a young offenders' institution - Lee, inside for burglary, thinks he's hard but other inmates are harder ... --The Children's Bookseller 21 August 2009 Geraldine Brennan

This well-researched book is no easy ride as it illustrates the grim reality of prison life for young people. - Bookseller's choice -- The Bookseller

This is raw and powerful writing. -- Lovereading4kids

"Without reservation, I commend and recommend it." -- Inside Time

"The dilemmas Lee faces in this violent and uncertain environment make for a compelling read." --Books for Keeps

"This bleak and unsentimental book is well worth reading." --Carousel

"It would be good to get copies inside the YOI's because I'm sure the lads will enjoy reading it." -- Gemma Baranowski, Youth Offender Team Worker

The story is gripping and exciting. I hope it finds its way to the audience it deserves.
--Armadillo Magazine, Summer 2010

Shortlisted for the YoungMinds Award 2010
--YoungMinds Book Award

The style is simple and the pace is fast. This would be a really good book for emergent readers in YOIs. --PRISON LIBRARIES JOURNAL November 2010

A young offender's experience from an award-winning writer for teenagers.

Aged seventeen, Lee is inside for a crime he has committed. And he soon finds out that prison is not the holiday camp he's heard about. Warned to 'play by the rules' he has to decide whose rules - the screws' or the other cons'.

Life in a Young Offenders Institution is about survival. But the real struggle is inside Lee himself. Is he destined to be a 'career con' or can he choose to change his life?

Inspired by the film, Lee's Story, (Young Offender: Freedom or Detention?) my novel begins where the film ends - with Lee in a cell, facing a barred window as behind him the door clangs shut. Lee is INSIDE and the four bare walls are frightening but not as scary as some of the stuff inside Lee's head. For the first time Lee has to face up to what he did and what he is. Big questions face Lee:Whose rules is he going to play by - the screws or the other cons? Is he destined to be a career con like his old man or can he change his life and go straight?

Aged seventeen, Lee is inside for a crime he has committed. And he soon finds out that prison is not the holiday camp he's heard about. Warned to 'play by the rules' he has to decide whose rules - the screws' or the other cons'.

Life in a Young Offenders Institution is about survival. But the real struggle is inside Lee himself. Is he destined to be a 'career con' or can he choose to change his life?

Julia Jarman has written over 80 books for children. She lives near Bedford with her husband and has three grown-up children. She has been a schoolteacher and journalist but she now devotes a lot of time to school and library visits to talk to children about writing.

Chapter 1.
'Open your mouth!'
I looked around.
'You,Mercer! I'm an officer. Open your mouth!'
Officer? Not police. Wrong uniform. Dark blue.
He stuck his fat face in front of mine.
'Look left.' He peered inside my gob. 'Look right. Up. Close. he ticked a box on a clipsheet.
I couldn't believe this. Him ordering me round like a dog.
What was he?