Edward Bloor

Generally, I'm not too keen on stories about white boys from rich families who wander onto the wrong side of the tracks and learn to kick it with their poor minority counterparts. However, I really liked this book. The seventh grade narrator, Paul, is supposedly legally blind, but he can see, both literally and figuratively, more than most people. He has this evil older brother who's a football star (I kept thinking this plot line was going to get super-natural, but it didn't). There's also a lot of good stuff in this book about the nature of cookie cutter housing developments or, rather, the lack of nature in cookie cutter housing developments. If lightning scares you and you're into the smell of citrus, I'd tell you to go for this book.… (mere)