• Age: 11 to 16
• Grade: 6 to 9
• Reading age: 11 to 16

Mick and his friends hang out in front of the downtown library--hassling passerby, making noise, spitting on anything in sight. If the night's slow they might even do a little "street cleaning," bashing some geek who has the bad luck to come anywhere near them.
Unlike his friends, though, Mick would rather be playing drums in his metal band, but they broke up in a vicious scrap that left everyone in stitches. So when he meets Dariana, a keyboard player, he's psyched to get together. But for Dariana, Mick's bashing is not at all cool. When Mick and Dariana's band starts taking off, he knows he's got to change. But his old friends have other ideas, and they decide to "persuade" Mick to see things their way.
Set against the tough background of inner-city Halifax and its music scene, Good Idea Gone Bad is the story of one young man growing up in dangerous circumstances.

No one has a clearer view of Atlantic Canada's literary endeavours over the past twenty years than Lesley Choyce. He is the founder of the literary journal Pottersfield Portfolio, and the publisher of Pottersfield Press. He has edited several fiction anthologies and has been the in-house editor of many books from Pottersfield Press including Making Waves, a collection of stories by emerging authors from Atlantic Canada. He is the author of more than fifty books in genres ranging from poetry and essays to autobiography, history and fiction for adults, young adults, and children. Among his recent books are the novels The Republic of Nothing, World Enough, and Cold Clear Morning, and the story collection Dance the Rocks Ashore. Choyce is the writer, host, and co-producer of the popular literary show television program, Off the Page with Lesley Choyce, which is broadcast across the country on Vision TV. He also teaches in the English department of Dalhousie University in Halifax and is leader of the rock band The Surf Poets.

Lesley Choyce's profile page

• Winner, Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children's Literature
• Winner, Canadian Children's Book Centre Our Choice Selection

"With his ear tuned into the rhythm of youth, Choyce does not settle for merely good-bad solutions."

Atlantic Books Today