Hocus Focus is the story of Lenny Lusendt, a thirteen year-old punk rocker from Columbus, Ohio. After Lenny repeatedly gets in trouble at his inner-city school, his single mother moves to the suburbs to start anew. Before his first day of school at Aulmpitt Junior High, he buys a new pair of contacts from a mysterious eye doctor. Much to his surprise, Lenny begins seeing visions of his long-departed deadbeat father, and even more startling sights at school: the principal is a talking cardboard cutout, his homeroom teacher is a caveman, and all of the preppie students look like giant Barbie and Ken dolls. Fortunately, Lenny finds friends who share his love of music and they form a punk rock band for the school’s talent show. But the band’s bass player has a younger sister, Pauline, who seems to be a backward, autistic seventh grader. Lenny’s contacts soon reveal that there is more to her than meets the eye. Since he is the only one who can see who she really is, he knows that he must help her. As Lenny’s band races to get ready for the talent show, he is forced to juggle his loyalty to his newfound friends with his mission to help Pauline. In the end he must confront the ghosts of his past before he can help anyone else and become the friend he wants to be.
