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Overview
When 12-year-old Andy meets Laurie and Jeff at an adoption party, he has already been in eight foster homes. Andy’s alcoholic mother has given him up to the state as “too hard to handle,” and his father is in jail. Andy longs for a loving home and parents he can trust, but his attention deficit disorder, combined with the legacy of his dysfunctional parents, causes him to constantly challenge authority. He steals, destroys property, gets in trouble at school, tries to make a gunpowder bomb, and accuses Jeff, his soon-to-be father, of touching him inappropriately. To make matters worse, Andy’s real father shows up asking for money. But Andy’s new parents refuse to give up on him, and Andy must fight to save his soon-to-be-father’s reputation and his own chance at having a real family.Twelve-year-old Andrew, who has ADD, is adopted by new parents after years of other foster homes and desperately hopes that he will not mess up the situation.
Synopsis
When 12-year-old Andy meets Laurie and Jeff at an adoption party, he has already been in eight foster homes. Andy’s alcoholic mother has given him up to the state as “too hard to handle,” and his father is in jail. Andy longs for a loving home and parents he can trust, but his attention deficit disorder, combined with the legacy of his dysfunctional parents, causes him to constantly challenge authority. He steals, destroys property, gets in trouble at school, tries to make a gunpowder bomb, and accuses Jeff, his soon-to-be father, of touching him inappropriately. To make matters worse, Andy’s real father shows up asking for money. But Andy’s new parents refuse to give up on him, and Andy must fight to save his soon-to-be-father’s reputation and his own chance at having a real family.
Kirkus Review
So you know I'm obnoxious right? And everything always goes wrong when I'm around," Andy Fleck, a 12-year-old-boy with ADD and problems with impulse control, asks his new foster father. The genius of this tale, which sandwiches wonderfully observed comic moments between scenes that are both heart-wrenching and suspenseful, is that the reader sees exactly how obnoxious and exasperating Andy is, yet root for him with his or her entire being.
Andy, a boy who's full of bravado but can't go to sleep at night without his stuffed bear. is a child who desperately needs a family. His drunken mother and jailed thief of a father surrendered him to the state of Massachusetts. Ever since, Andy, though intelligent and resourceful, can't sit still, obey orders, or cooperate with authorities, and has been placed in numerous foster homes, "passed around like a puppy that nobody wants cause it keeps messing on the floor."
But now he has a real possibility for security. Two good people are willing to take him into their home with an eye to adoption. Can this over-wound boy whose ethical landscape is as twisted as a corkscrew keep his behavior under control? In a first-person voice that's all-too-real, the drama intensifies as Andy tests his new foster parents' patience and fortitude, finally culminating when Andy tells a devastating lie about his foster father. A killer read.
Editorials
Kirkus Review
So you know I'm obnoxious right? And everything always goes wrong when I'm around," Andy Fleck, a 12-year-old-boy with ADD and problems with impulse control, asks his new foster father. The genius of this tale, which sandwiches wonderfully observed comic moments between scenes that are both heart-wrenching and suspenseful, is that the reader sees exactly how obnoxious and exasperating Andy is, yet root for him with his or her entire being.Andy, a boy who's full of bravado but can't go to sleep at night without his stuffed bear. is a child who desperately needs a family. His drunken mother and jailed thief of a father surrendered him to the state of Massachusetts. Ever since, Andy, though intelligent and resourceful, can't sit still, obey orders, or cooperate with authorities, and has been placed in numerous foster homes, "passed around like a puppy that nobody wants cause it keeps messing on the floor."
But now he has a real possibility for security. Two good people are willing to take him into their home with an eye to adoption. Can this over-wound boy whose ethical landscape is as twisted as a corkscrew keep his behavior under control? In a first-person voice that's all-too-real, the drama intensifies as Andy tests his new foster parents' patience and fortitude, finally culminating when Andy tells a devastating lie about his foster father. A killer read.