Who Is Eddie Leonard?

by Harry Mazer

Book Overview

Eddie Leonard is 15 and has no idea who his parents are. When his grandmother dies, Eddie is left an orphan with no understanding of who he is. That is until he pays a visit to the post office and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385311362
• ISBN13: 9780385311366
• Release Date: November 1993
• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Length: 188 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.7" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

Who Is Eddie Leonard

Eddie's mother a banded him when he was a baby, well that's what he thinks. His grandmother raised him. He wants to find about his mother but every time he asks his grandmother she tells him something different. He really wants to find out about his mother. One day his grandmother dies so he has no place to go! He had seen his face on a missing children ad. He looks up the number in the phone book. He makes his way to their house by hitch hiking, walking, and busses. Anything you can name he took to get there. When he got there, he was to scared to go up to the house. He stayed in the garage for four days. He finally heard his father in the garage one night he went down to tell him he was his son. And well you will have to read to find out what happened.

An emotioally involving drama.

Who is Eddie Leonard? by Harry Mazer, was an emotionally involving book. Whenever I read, I felt as if I were Eddie. The scenes felt so real that I could not put the book down. I could feel Eddie's pain when his grandmother and uncle hurt him. The most emotional scenes were when they hurt him. I could not believe what Eddie had to go through for the first fifteen years of his life. The grandmother and Uncle Steward were my least favorite characters. I disapproved to what they did to Eddie because they were physically and mentally abusive to Eddie. For the first fifteen years of his life, he lived with his grandmother. Eddie's grandmother told him all different stories about his who and where his mother was. Her telling him the stories was just the beginning of mental abuse. At night, she would tell him that she hated him. After Eddie felt unwanted, she would cuddle with him. I feel this is the worst way to raise a child. If a child's mind is played around with too much, the child is likely to have problems later in life. When Eddie was four, his grandmother threw him out of their apartment building window. How can someone through a child out of a window? I could not believe she was that cruel and did that to Eddie. I feel that no one deserves to be abused for any reason. His grandmother also assailed Eddie for saying he was hungry. If she bought food and fed him then he would not say he was hungry. Eddie's grandmother was not the only person who abused him; his uncle Steward also made his life awful. He would give Eddie presents, and then take them back when he went home. Eddie never had a caring family. Everyone needs some kind of love. Eddie Leonard never had anyone to love him. I felt bad for Eddie at school because the kids never accepted him. Eddie was always making up stories about his life. He told children at school that his father was a professional wrestler. Children are cruel to other children for wrong reasons. Most of the stories Eddie told were from his grandmother. She was wrong for telling Eddie the obnoxious stories. She should have known that children will believe whatever adults say. The children at school thought this was something to make fun of Eddie for. He never had family waiting for him everyday after school, and he never had friends waiting for him in school. Eddie would skip school because no one accepted him. Eddie's grandmother never cared about Eddie not going to school. If she cared about Eddie, then she would have made him go to school everyday. When Eddie was not in school, he started a habit of smoking cigarettes. He would watch his grandmother smoke whenever she was stressed out. Instead of learning in school, Eddie would learn bad habits from his grandmother. Eddie did not have a positive role model to follow. He should have done what he thought was right. I do not like what the grandmother would do to Eddie. She showed to

It is one of the best books I've ever read

I think that 'Who Is Eddie Leonard' is kinda heart-wrenching. He feels lost, confused, and doesn't belong everywhere. He had to live on his own for such a long time, and before he is even 18, he feels really disappointed that who he thought were his family, wasn't really, and decides to leave. But no one really wants him back.Connie and Bruce just let him roam. he wasn't their son, anyway. The only person who probably even thinks of him was Miller. He is really pitiful and his actions show his need for a family and love. But there is always a mean streak in him. He probably needed to vent his anger, his confusion about who he really was, the way his 'family' treated him and his lousy life. And I thought it was pretty sad that he ended up without what he really wanted most. His 'family' just disappeared like a shooting star and that was that. I could tell he really missed them, but he felt that he was an outcast and he simply couldn't go back and expect to be accepted. In the conversation, Connie gave Eddie false hope. He thought she wanted him back. But no...it was just friendship. I truly felt sorry for Eddie then. He was so desperate for a family, he managed to convince himself that his cruel grandmother wasn't his grandmother, and that he was really Jason Diaz, who had a family. I only wished that his grandmother had loved him a little more...and told him truthfully who he really was. Perhaps then, he could have been a little happier