Boy Wonder (novel)

Boy Wonder is a novel by James Robert Baker published in 1988. The novel is a mock of oral history of Los Angeles, California in which we hear the life of Hollywood avant-garde film producer Shark Trager.

Plot

Orange County, California 1950: GALE 'SHARK' TRAGER is born to long-suffering WINNIE TRAGER in the backseat of her car at a drive-in. Shark's arch-conservative father MAC TRAGER (who looks uncannily like actor Glenn Ford) learns the news and ends up running someone off the road on his way to the hospital. Shark immediately is a strange kid, suffering from childhood obesity and not helped by the fact that Winnie is a hypochondriac and Mac is a racist bully. When Winnie grows catatonic, Mac brings in sexy GLADYS FRAZER to take over the wife/mother role in the family. Shark grows up, making friends with gay neighbor KENNY ROBERTS, acne-ridden misfit PUS JENKINS and intellect ELLIOT BERNSTEIN. Winnie dies after climbing into an active freezer and Gladys leaves Mac soon after as the neighbors shun her for being a homewrecker.

Boy Wonder (film)

Boy Wonder is a 2010 American psychological thriller about vigilantism. The film was written and directed by Michael Morrissey and stars Caleb Steinmeyer, Zulay Henao, Bill Sage, Tracy Middendorf, Daniel Stewart Sherman, Chuck Cooper, and James Russo.

Plot

A young boy named Sean Donovan lives with his mother and abusive alcoholic father. A carjacker attacks his family one night, which results in his mother's murder. Afterward, his father Terry moves them to a nicer neighborhood.

Years later, Sean is an excellent student but has become unsocial, and he sees abuse in everyday arguments. He trains as a boxer and carries weapons at night as a vigilante. He kills an assaulter in an attempted mugging, and an eyewitness account garners the attention of Teresa Ames, who had recently been promoted to the homicide division of the NYPD. She investigates Sean, who frequents the police station as he searches for information on his mother's killer. Teresa befriends him and learns about his life, such as the fact that he speaks fluent Chinese after he angrily berates rude staff in a Chinese restaurant. Sean defends a young woman being violently abused by her pimp and strikes him with a baton before shooting him.