The One Where the Kid Nearly Jumps to His Death and Lands in California

February 26, 2007
Lively, first-person narrative brings to life Hershey's (My Big Sister Is So Bossy She Says You Can't Read This Book
) newest protagonist, Alastair Hudson, a one-legged 13-year-old with dashing good looks, a wicked sense of humor and an enormous chip on his shoulder against his recently remarried father. As the story opens, Alastair is reluctantly preparing to go from the home he shares with his mother in Denver, Colo., to California to spend the summer with his father, whom he blames for the accident that left him handicapped ("No matter what anyone said... it was always and would ever be his fault
," Alastair muses). Alastair is determined not to enjoy himself at Lumina Beach but is thrown off guard when he discovers that his father's new wife, Skyla, is not only "loaded" with money but she is also a double amputee. If Alastair's heart is opened a little by Skyla's generous hospitality and enthusiasm for life, it remains closed to his father, whom Alastair quickly surmises is as self-centered and shallow as always. Two subplots, one involving Skyla's celebrity niece and another focusing on a gruff, retired coach, who teaches Alastair how to swim competitively, add extra dimension to this story about family conflicts that can become long-term grudges. Depicting tragic circumstances and comic situations with equal expertise, the author offers a poignant novel populated with complex, memorable characters. Ages 10-up.

March 1, 2007
Gr 7 Up-When he was eight, Alastair leapt from a ski-lift chair. Now 15, he's relatively OK about the ensuing amputation of one leg below the knee, but is livid about being forced to spend the summer in California with his father, "the jerk who ruined our lives," and his new wife. No matter that Skyla is a good-looking fitness fiend, a double amputee, or that she is rich, with a beautiful beach house and employees to meet his every whim: he's not going to be a nice guy, and Dad is going to suffer. Enamored of Jesse, a 15-year-old soap-opera star who happens to be Skyla's niece, Alastair agrees to participate in a celebrity fund-raiser swim/bike/obstacle-course event with her and her on-screen love, Sergio. The crotchety former high school swim coach whom Alastair enlists to put him through a boot-camp-style training regimen will remind some readers of the character in Chris Crutcher's "Stotan!" (HarperCollins, 1986). And the plot of a recalcitrant teen condemned to the horrors of a glitzy, all-expenses-paid L.A. summer brings to mind Sonya Sones's "One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies" (S & S, 2004). The plot whirls to the climactic competition, an emotional maelstrom in which the various subplots are resolved, mostly. Some readers will relate to the "hated former parent" syndrome, others to the nouveau riche trappings, while still others might identify with the unique and interesting range of characters. Profanity is sprinkled throughout, but this is basically a decent book in which "boy makes good.""Joel Shoemaker, Southeast Junior High School, Iowa City, IA"

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