Twice a year I go to the Scholastic Warehouse sale to buy books using the water sale money. My son uses the chance to buy his own books as well with his saved allowance funds. One of the books he bought the last time was this one. I also bought one for the WHHS LMC. Unfortunately, my son's copy fell behind his "to read" pile on his nightstand. It lay forgotten until I cleaned back there last weekend.
One thing about West Haven is that everyone knows everyone else. Many of us are third, fourth, even fifth generation Westies. If we ourselves don't know you, one of our people probably knows one of your people. We have a rich history in our little city. The same is true for Norvelt.
Jack is a tween in the early 1960s. He's obsessed with World War II and prone to nosebleeds. His wacky neighbor (I kept picturing her as Mrs. Figg from HP) hires him over the summer to help write obituaries. Although billed as hilarious, I myself only smiled a lot with only one really pee your pants level laugh.
I don't like to genderfy (is that a word?) books, but this is a boy book. I see why my son liked it so much, and I can see many sophomore boys reading this alongside their WWII and early 1960s history work. I can also see parents of tween boys liking this, and those who were Jack's age at the same time reading this through a very different lens.
What's nifty is this is already on our shelf. Bailey also has one, and I think the boy will be donating this one to Carrigan!
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All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W.
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