Author: Gary D. Schmidt
Genre: realistic fiction
Similar books: Sidetracked by Diana Harmon Asher
The Great Wall of Lucy Wu by Wendy Wan-Long Shang
Rating:
 |
| simply lovely |
Summary (provided by publisher): Carter Jones is astonished early one morning when he finds a real English butler, bowler hat and all, on the doorstep—one who stays to help the Jones family, which is a little bit broken.
In addition to figuring out middle school, Carter has to adjust to the unwelcome presence of this new know-it-all adult in his life and navigate the butler's notions of decorum. And ultimately, when his burden of grief and anger from the past can no longer be ignored, Carter learns that a burden becomes lighter when it is shared.
My opinion: Gary D. Schmidt's books break my heart in the best possible way. The plot here is a simple one, without a lot of complication. A good portion of it's beauty is in that simplicity. A fair amount of the text is actually dedicated to the playing of cricket and the use of technical terms. But all of that build up pays off in the central metaphor: finding your way to growing up. If there would otherwise be any ambiguity for the reader that is cleared up with the repeated refrain "remember who you are" which we can of course understand to me "remember the kind of person you want to be." If the characters weren't so well presented that sort of obvious lesson would be a blunt instrument but the charm of the writing covers that.
As a bonus, fans of Schmidt's prior books will recognize many teachers and neighbors as previous central characters (an occurrence that never failed to make me smile).
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.
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