The broad appeal of the fiction of young adult novelist James W. Bennett comes from a common experience everybody shares: how individuals navigate through institutions. For Bennett, sometimes discomfort can result from the impact institutions have on individual self-definition. All of us, Bennett believes, have had feelings of rebellion against institutional wounds. "I think any book that I have written would take any reader on a trip to answer these questions: 'Who am I within this framework? How do I define myself? How do I establish integrity but know the difference between just rebelling for its own sake and rebelling based on some imperative"'," Bennett explained to Jon Saari in an interview for Authors and Artists for Young Adults (AAYA).

Of special interest to Bennett are stories of teenagers who have, in his words, "slipped through the cracks." These marginalized youth often have found themselves hurt by...