Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Finding the Worm by Mark Goldblatt - ESSENTIAL

Goldblatt, Mark Finding the Worm, 344 pgs. Random House Children’s Books, 2015.  $16.99.  

Language: G (1 swear, hell); Mature Content: PG; Violence PG.

Julian Twerski is a 7th grader in the fast track at McMaster’s Junior High during the 1969-1970 school year.  Twerski has a lot going on as he tries to prepare for his bar mitzvah, deals with a school bully, takes on a school assigned essay for a crime he didn’t commit, and deals with the illness of his friend.  Julian Twerski has some great friends in the Thirty-Fourth Avenue gang, a group of kids hailing from the same zip code, except that one of their number, Quentin, is dealing with a brain tumor.  

Goldblatt takes some difficult topics and makes them engaging and accessible.  This book was delightfully written.  Finding the Worm is totally readable without having read Twerp, which comes first.  

MS-ESSENTIAL.  Michelle in the Middle

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