From School Library Journal
Grade 5-7 In this sequel to Just Like a Real Family (Atheneum, 1983), now seventh-grader June Finch and her con valescing mother take a job as live-in caregivers to elderly Franklin Cooper. It seems like the answer to their pray ersinstant home, instant grandfather. June discovers, however, that living with Franklin's well-meaning but intru sive ways is difficult at times. With sup port from her mother and heavy doses of affection for Franklin, June begins to cope. But it is not until the week when she and Franklin are left on their own that she accepts, even somewhat cher ishes, the old man's nurturing presence in her life. No Strings Attached goes easy on charactersonly a handful throughoutand the three principals are well drawn and extremely likable mostly because of the way they interact with each other, roughly at times, but always with genuine concern. What the book unfortunately lacks is a climax. Readers are built up throughout, awaiting that event from which the turning point in June's ambivalence will come. As a result, the book rolls gently along and then ends. More exciting and per haps more tender treatments of child-grandparent relationships exist in Ma zer's Figure of Speech (Dell, 1986) and Byars' House of Wings (Viking, 1972), but this quietly-moving story merits a place in a middle school collection, es pecially one owning its predecessor. Joanne Aswell, Hunterdon County Library, Flemington, N.J.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Description
June finds sharing a house with her mother and her foster grandfather requires a difficult adjustment to his forgetfulness and his crabby remarks to her junior high school friends, but she also loves him as a family member.
