Red Deer Press (Fitzhenry & Whiteside), 2010
From
the Publisher:
This is an extraordinary story about a 13-year-old boy named
Lee who loves setting personal and odd records. He's obsessed by them in fact -
from tracing the annual public marathon with his dog Santiago to bouncing a
basketball in the school playground for 12 hours straight with no one around -
but he's not interested in going public with them.
Along the way Lee collects famous quotes from all manner of
famous people whose lives and words have encouraged him - and provided
inspiration during trying times. In addition he sees himself as the director of
the definitive movie about his life, focusing on the light and dark moments he
experiences as he seeks a raison d'etre for his life.
Above all, he seeks to escape being ordinary, and when he's
confronted with the greatest challenge of his young life - saving his pesky
friend from certain death - his strength of character and purpose demonstrate
that he is anything but ordinary.
My Take:
The beginning of this quirky story
is all about getting to know Lee and his developing friendship with pesky
Rhonda, a girl who is three years younger than he is. Lee’s record setting
attempts and his unusual hobby of collecting quotes from famous people are
interesting, but make for a slow start to the story. If you hang in there, the second
half picks up, especially when Lee gets into a predicament that puts his
record-setting skills to the test and could mean big trouble for his now-friend
Rhonda. There is an interesting writing style where Lee narrates events in his
own life like a movie script, complete with stage directions. I liked the way the author used details to establish Lee's personality.
Other Info:
Colleen Sydor lives in Winnipeg
and first established her writing career with the picture books Camilla Chameleon and Raising a Little Stink.
This book is nominated for the
Ontario Library Association’s Forest of Reading in the Silver Birch (Fiction)
category for 2012. I’ve profiled some of the
other nominated books: Crossing to Freedom, Ghosts of the Titantic, Neil
Flambe and the Aztec Abduction, That
Boy Red, The Glory Wind, Ghost Messages, and Undergrounders.
Other books by this
author include:
My Mother is a French Fry and Further Proof of My Fuzzed
Up LifeCamilla Chameleon (picture book)
Timmerman Was Here
Raising a Little Stink (picture book)
OOO-CHA!
Fashion Fandango (GeneratioNorah Series)
Maxwell's Metamorphosis (GeneratioNorah Series)
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Thanks for sharing about this. I hadn't heard of it.
ReplyDeleteInteresting title, Andrea. I've never heard of it before. Hey, I'm not on your list. :) http://1000wrongs.blogspot.com (Fellow MMGM poster)
ReplyDeleteSounds like one my son would enjoy; I'll have him look for it! Thanks so much for the word on it.
ReplyDelete