Heads or Tails: Stories from the Sixth Grade (Jack Henry)

ISBN: 978-0374429232

Год издания: 1995

From Publishers Weekly
The author of the offbeat Rotten Ralph picture books makes an auspicious foray into new ground with this semi-autobiographical, wholly engaging novel. His narrator, Jack, travels through the often poignant moments that highlight his sixth grade year, at the same time describing his unpredictable family life: "Since I was born, we had already lived in nine different houses. I hated that word 'renter.' It made me feel that I didn't really belong anywhere, like we had to pay people to put up with us," he says. Stuck between an older sister he emulates and a pesky if appealing younger brother, Jack always strives to do the right thing--often to land in trouble. His perspective is quirky but reliable, and often surprising. The first chapter, for example, describes Jack's three-year battle to fill his diary; when he can think of nothing to write, he begins to pack the diary with "stuff"--bugs, baseball cards, stamps and so on--but he concludes, "I was covering over the empty white space of the pages in the same way I covered my eyes with my hands when I watched a monster movie." A bittersweet resonance filters the humor in these stories, and lingers most welcomely. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.