Customer Reviews

A Face in Every Window

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I picked up Dancing on the Edge awhile back and found the sort of sci-fi tie in weird. I heard this book was good, so I picked it up, having a school book report done soon. I finished it in two days, because I could never put it down. You wrapped up in the story of J.P. and his odd family. You can't help knowing how he feels at some times. When J.P.'s grandmother dies, his family falls apart. His mother starts seeing a doctor a lot and his mentally retarded father has found a new fetish of staying on the roof with an illuminnated Nativity set.His mother wins a contest where the prize is a farmhouse in New Hope. They fill their house with people, a girl with an abusive father, an abonded kid named Larry and all his poetry friends. This story really hits home. I promise you'll love it. Even if the cover looks bizarre, you'll pick up what all the things represent while reading it. Trust me, this story is amazingly well written and you won't regret it!

This book is really well written. It's mainly about a teenager named James-Patrick and the problems he faces in his everyday life after his grandmother, who held the family together, died. His father is mentally retarded. They move into a large house after his grandmother dies, and his mother invites "weird" people (according to JP) to come live with the family. JP can't stand the chaos in the house with all the people there. Especially since he's a really good student, and his goal is to be the Valdictorian of his high school class. Over time his relationships with these people improve. This book was really good. It touched on things that many teenagers face in everyday life. This kind of stuff happens to everyone, and not just when a relative or close friend dies. Personally, I've felt like this a lot in life, just because I want order, like JP. This book shows that just because people are different, we can't alienate them. They're people too, and they deserve respect. I'll definitely end up reading this book again.

i love this book. first it makes u cry then laugh but pity jp for his father who is a misphit . his dad climbs on the roof and screams yer not me mum when jp tries to get him off the roof. this book is out despite the first persons review.

When JP O'Brien's Grandma Mary dies, his orderly world quickly begins to unravel - his mentally challenged father becomes completely lost, and his mother, Mam, starts acting quite unlike her usual sheltered self. JP tries to make do in this new world, but when Mam wins a farmhouse in an essay contest and the family moves, things really come apart.

Mam insists on opening the farmhouse to just about every neighborhood outcast who comes by, and suddenly the house is filled with strangers who borrow his things without asking, and seem to be creating a world in the farmhouse that doesn't include JP or his father.

All JP wants is for the world to reorder itself, and his family to be restored to what it used to be. But what if the world is meant to stay the way it is? As the people in his life begin to make space for this sudden chaos, JP finds himself realizing that maybe family is more than just the people you're born with, and maybe chaos isn't the worst thing that has happened to him.

In this novel, Han Nolan presents a boy struggling to maintain control of his world even as it slips between his fingers. JP O'Brien is a sympathetic protagonist whose worries draw the reader into his world, and we find ourselves hoping that he gets what he wants.

Not everything that is broken gets fixed in A FACE IN EVERY WINDOW, but this novel is a heartwarming tale of family and friendship nonetheless.

Reviewed by: Rebecca Wells

JP has always known his family was unusual. His father is mentally retarded and his mother is often sickly and thinks she might die. His father and mother are like children when they are together. JP's grandmother is the one who holds the family together, and the four of them live together in a happy home.

Then JP's grandmother dies unexpectedly when he is fifteen, and the safety of his world shatters. Without his grandmother there for stability, things deteriorate into chaos. JP, who thrives on routine and the expected, is more and more uncomfortable every day.

Things get worse. JP's mother is spending a great deal of time with the doctor who treated her the most recent time she was in the hospital, and JP is convinced they are having an affair. When JP's mother wins an old farmhouse in an essay contest, she uproots JP and his father and the three of them move in. But they aren't the only ones to move there. Bobbi, a neighbor of theirs whose father beats her, joins them. There are few people JP hates worse than Bobbi. One of those people he hates worse, though, may just be his friend Tim's older brother Larry, a former drug addict whose family doesn't speak to him anymore. JP's mother also has Larry move in with them.

Soon the entire house is filled with weird people, who disrupt JP's routine and borrow his things without asking. He can't stand this life and can't stand the way he feels about everything. But is there any way for him to fit in with this new family?

I liked all of the different characters in this book and the ways JP found to relate to them. I also liked how the emphasis of the story was entirely on JP's home life, and his school life wasn't discussed at all.

I thought JP's mother was incredibly insensitive. I couldn't believe she didn't see something was wrong with her son and didn't make an effort to make him more comfortable in his own home.

Even though JP is bitter about everything his mom did, he learns to accept it in the end, which leaves you with a warm feeling. I like all the interesting characters that live in JP's house, but I think the book is too long with all the events that happen, that doesn't really have any meaning to me. But this is a great, touching book about love and acceptance that everyone should read.

The story is about a young boy called JP whose life falls apart after his grandmther's death, but chaos really starts to heat up when they win an old farmhouse. Soon the house is ffilled with people he can not stant they are against all the morals he believees a person shold have. So at first JP defies his mother and ehr group of friends, then he tries to fit in but either way he cannot. Everything JP holds dear and dependalble unraveld withen the firdays at his new home so he is left with nothing but the bare threads of his once normal life. While this happened his mother and her group of lost friends are starting to weave the threads belonging in ther lives and to find themselves. The books strength is that the book grabs the floor benth you and there is no cushio to soften the fall on the hard really on the issues of love.

The story is about a young boy called JP whose life falls apart after his grandmther's death, but chaos really starts to heat up when they win an old farmhouse. Soon the house is ffilled with people he can not stant they are against all the morals he believees a person shold have. So at first JP defies his mother and ehr group of friends, then he tries to fit in but either way he cannot. Everything JP holds dear and dependalble unraveld withen the firdays at his new home so he is left with nothing but the bare threads of his once normal life. While this happened his mother and her group of lost friends are starting to weave the threads belonging in ther lives and to find themselves. The books strength is that the book grabs the floor benth you and there is no cushio to soften the fall on the hard really on the issues of love.

When I was going to get a book to read at school I was in a hurry so I picked out any book I could find so I just took out this book. I thought it would be boring at first but when I got into the second chapter I was very interested. This book is about a teenage boy named James Patrick. When his grandmother Mary died his family fell apart. Especially his father who was mentally disabled but worst of all he didn't know what to do about this situation. His mother then goes out with Dr.Mike who James Patrick though his mother was having an affair with. If you want to know more you should really read this book.

This book was really good!...Han Nolan presents an excellent way to describe the boy's crazy, chaotic life.