The Corporate Kid
Neil Shulman, Susan Wrathall
(Whitman Publishing, Aug. 28, 2012)
Two very different lives intersect in The Corporate Kid. Charles Sullivan is a youth from the poor part of Atlanta, with a strong sense of family and a good moral compass. Bill Bradford is a powerful CEO who has lost his way not just ethically, but, one fateful Sunday morning, also literally. A few wrong turns bring Bill to the south side of town, where he hits Charles's mother in a car accident. Before long the lives of the Sullivan and Bradford families are intertwined in a mixture of comedy and drama and opportunity. Charles finds himself face to face with crooked attorneys, helpful pastors, angry protestors, and a cast of other friends and foes, as events take him from his poor neighborhood to the boardroom of Bradford's giant company. The Corporate Kid shows how ethical decision-making is something everyone can aspire to, even if they're seemingly powerless and even if they've temporarily lost their way. Charles stays true to his morals and, by the end of the book, changes the world he lives in. The Corporate Kid is for young readers who want an uplifting story, and for the grownups who want them to have positive role models.