Most Improved Sophomore

Love, death, sex, homework—it's all part of the same problem when you're sixteen.

Tony Vivamano steps out of the shower—steaming hot naked—and tries to eat a roast beef sandwich while he shaves and admires his muscles. It's clear to him that he is a millionaire in biological gold and he should be prepared to share his riches. "I am a hedonist," he tells the mirror practicing a sophomore vocabulary word. The problem is, Tony's best friend Patrick Cantwell  is too busy trying to write a paper on wisdom on a Friday night to go out looking for girls.  With a little coaxing, Patrick and Tony are racing off in The Love Machine, Tony's mother's station wagon, and the trouble soon begins. Most Improved Sophomore takes the reader on a hilarious ride through the world of 1970s high school partying, soul searching and the one thing all sophomore boys want: True Love.  A comic novel loaded with laughs, but also a serious exploration about what it means to go all the way in love and friendship.

Kevin Killeen of St. Louis, MO

A comic novelist who writes about family life, growing up and Catholic schools, Kevin Killeen has won awards for humor in his first two books, Never Hug a Nun and Try to Kiss a Girl. By day Killeen has worked since 1995 as a reporter for CBS Radio in St. Louis, covering crime, politics and human interest features. He has also written and directed some twenty humorous, full-length radio plays for the KMOX Holiday Radio Show. In his third novel, Snow Globes and Hand Grenades, Killeen for the first time put the boys in the background and tells a story whose main character is a girl, and in this latest novel,  Most Improved Sophomore, he tells the tale from multiple points of view.