The Field Guide To The North American Teenager By Ben Philippe

We all have relationships with people we value, but have you ever thought about how they may be shaping our future selves? In the book, The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe, we follow Norris Kaplan. A high school student who is forced to move from his hometown of Montreal, Canada, to Austin, Texas, where he uses his wit and sarcasm as a way to shield himself from his new life. Fortunately for him, his plan doesn’t work as he slowly builds up new relationships that help shape him to become the better person we see by the end of the book.

First, people close to you can be of influence through you absorbing some of their interests, new to you or old. An example of this would be when Norris get’s reinvested in hockey

Lived all over the world! Most offensively, the flyer was written in Comic Sans. At the bottom of the glossily xeroxed sheet was an email address that Norris knew was Judith’s spam account. “That’s you, right?” Liam asked calmly. The picture under the text is definitely Norris. He didn’t have enough photos of himself floating around cyberspace like most teens to lose track of, let alone that one. Red Canadiens hockey jersey. The black helmet is dented. There was probably some irony in seeing one of his proudest moments on the rink coming back to gnaw him right on the penis—and in Texas of all places. (..) “Where did you get this?” Norris whispered, instantly crumpling the sheet into a ball.”

Norris hates his father for what he did to his mom and him and refuses to treat the people who actually care about him with the same level of disrespect. When Norris dials his father, he says, “‘I’m fine,’ Norris said, rubbing his face. He was sick of Felix’s voice, of the fake concern, of the way his head spun when he tried to look for a street sign. He was in Texas, and he was in Texas. Felix was in Vancouver, Canada. What is the point of this? Of any of it?” (220) and “‘Go look after the kid who still cares what you think,’ Norris lashed out. Or maybe get a head start on that third family for when this one blows up in your face. Bye, Felix.’” (220). If his dad abandoned the people who cared about him the most, then Norris refuses to do the