Pay It Forward

Pay It Forward takes as its premise the

bumper-sticker phrase "Think Globally, Act Locally" and builds a novel

around it. The hero of the story is young Trevor McKinney, a 12-year-old

whose imagination is sparked by an extra-credit assignment in Social

Studies: "Think of an idea for world change, and put it into action."

Trevor's idea is deceptively simple: do a good deed for three people,

and in exchange, ask each of them to "pay it forward" to three more. "So

nine people get helped. Then those people have to do twenty-seven....

Then it sort of spreads out." Trevor's early attempts to get his project

off the ground seem to end in failure: a junkie he befriends ends up

back in jail; an elderly woman whose garden he tends dies unexpectedly.

But even after the boy has given up on his plan, his acts of kindness

bear unexpected fruit, and soon an entire movement is underway and

spreading across America. Trevor, meanwhile, could use a little

help himself. His father walked out on the family, and his mother,

Arlene, is fighting an uphill battle with alcoholism, poor judgment in

men, and despair. When the boy's new Social Studies teacher, Reuben St.

Clair, arrives on the scene, Trevor sees in him not only a source of

inspiration for how to change the world, but also the means of altering

his mother's life. Yet Reuben has his own set of problems. Horribly

scarred in Vietnam, he is reluctant to open himself up to the

possibility of rejection--or love. Indeed, the relationship between

Arlene and Reuben is central to the novel as these two damaged people

learn to "pay forward" the trust and affection Trevor has given them.