Grendel's Guide to Love and War

Seventeen-year-old Tom lives with his father in a quiet retirement community where he helps the elderly neighbours with chores and interviews them to preserve their stories. When the rowdy Rothgar family moves in their partying disrupts the neighbourhood and sets off Tom’s father’s PTSD. Tom and friend Ed begin a prank war that quickly escalates, but with the help of Tom’s sister Zipora and the senior residents they win the prank war and Tom also wins Willow Rothgar as a girlfriend. This humorous novel, loosely based on Beowulf, explores identity, grief, perseverance, social responsibility, love, and connection, and can be used as a full class, literature circle, or independent novel. Social considerations noted.