Overview
It promises to be a less-than-thrilling summer for 16-year-old Manhattanite Max Whooten. He doesn't have a job. His parents are annoying. His younger sister is even more annoying. His buddy Trevor just got out of a mental institution and the hottest girl he knows is Leila, his best friend, who he'll never get with. All he's got to keep him company is his own anger. An anger he seemingly has no control over and which is increasingly taking over his life.But an unexpected turn of events (well, not so unexpected- the family cat, Mozart, aka Crappy, was sure to choke on a hairball sometime) leads him to his aunt's place in Woodstock. After Crappy is safely laid to rest next to his sister Madame Chow, Max decides to stick around Woodstock for a few weeks. Sure, his Aunt Ginny might be a bit eccentric, but she does introduce Max to Zini, a young artist who turns out to be his muse. This just might be the recipe for finding love, and most definitely finding himself.
Max lets us into his frustrated, highly hormonal, comical, and sometimes inspired world through a series of diary entries in this coming-of-age story about an ordinary boy becoming an extraordinary person and writer.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
In a novel generously laced with humor, Hite (Dither Farm) departs from his usual folksy style and rural settings to explore the inner workings of a disgruntled urban teen's mind, structuring his work as the journal of 16-year-old New Yorker Max Whooten. In one of the characteristically deadpan entries, Max writes, "I don't know how I'll make it through the summer. Hope it's just a phase." For a while Max stews in his angst, then three things occur. His ancient cat, whom Max calls Crappy due to his inability to hit the litter box), finally dies. Max travels upstate to bury the cat at his aunt's place near Woodstock, and there he meets a girl who "might actually like me." From that point on, surprises seem to lie around every corner. The novel moves from morose to downright optimistic, winningly capturing the roller-coaster emotions typically felt by teens as they confront new situations or tire of old ones. Max's predicaments will win laughs and evoke empathy for an underdog who eventually learns to grab opportunities to turn his life around. Philosophical queries, common in the author's previous works, make an appearance here, too, as Max ponders (none too rigorously) the meaning of his existence and invents "coolism" ("It's the philosophy of not thinking too much and just cooling out"). Readers will relate to Max's growing pains, his unharnessed longing to find a purpose and his glee in jumping back in "the game" and ending up a winner. Ages 10-14. (Sept.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationVOYA
Sixteen-year-old Max Whooten is having an awful summer. He has no job, no plans, and feels directionless in his life. His Aunt Ginny suggests that he write down his feelings, and so he starts a journal. In the beginning, every day meanders into the next. He lives in an apartment in the upper West side of New York with his father, mother, younger sister, and a farting cat named Crappy. His friend Trevor just got out of a mental hospital, and his best friend and crush, Leila, is dating some German kid. He has no idea why he constantly feels as if he has a lit fuse and is about to explode. All he knows is that something has to happen before he does blow up. When poor Crappy passes away, he travels to Woodstock to lay the cat to rest on his eccentric Aunt's farm, and there his life begins to change. He meets a young woman named Zini who opens up new worlds to him and makes him realize that having a lit fuse is not necessarily a bad thing. Hite writes a wonderful and humorous story that any reluctant reader, male or female, is sure to enjoy. Anyone could relate to Max's struggles with himself and the world in which he lives. This sweet, moving, coming-of-age novel is sure to delight. Reviewer: Victoria VogelChildren's Literature
Sixteen-year-old Max Wooten is bored. It is summer vacation in New York City and he is off his game--no job, no joking around, no girlfriend. His best friend just got out of the mental hospital and his best female friend went to Pennsylvania with her mother. Nothing is going his way. When the family cat dies, he takes him upstate to bury him and stays with his Aunt Jenny who suggests he get a notebook and write in it when he feels like he is about to explode. In this coming-of-age novel, Max starts to see that the world does not revolve around himself and that there are consequences for his actions: not having a job means he cannot afford a new computer or CDs; throwing someone into the pool at a party will not necessarily help endear him to a girl even though the guy was a jerk. Instead of continuing to spiral downward, his life does start to improve. He meets a potential girlfriend, his father gets him a job, and he comes to accept his parents. Reviewer: Janet L. RoseSchool Library Journal
Gr 8 Up Max Whooten, 16, feels that his life is a series of unending frustrations. A friend is lost in the haze of a mental breakdown; Leila, the girl he has a crush on, has been his friend since childhood; and his parents and sister are nothing more than a bunch of annoying neurotics. He's angry, feeling down in the dumps, and expecting that things will get worse. When the aged family cat, Crappy, dies, Max journeys upstate from his Manhattan home to give the frozen animal its final resting place. Hite deftly uses the cat's death to move the protagonist away from his stress-filled environment and deliver him to his New Age aunt Ginny, who lives near Woodstock. Caught between his attraction for Leila and the artistic girl whom he meets upstate, Max is trying hard to find the meaning of life through the exploration of relationships with friends and members of the opposite sex. The novel is made up of notebook entries that take readers through the teen's intensely stimulating emotional journey. This fast-paced coming-of-age story has wide appeal.-Caryl Soriano, New York Public Library