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Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
Grade 6-9–Charles Harrisong is obsessed with the idea that he is strange and can't fit in with the sixth grade in Normal, IL. He feels that he possesses a special talent, the ability to know what people are really saying and thinking, all of which, he is sure, is directed at him and is negative to the extreme. He is especially embarrassed that his family rents rather than owns a home, wears home-sewn clothes, and lacks the material things that the other students feel are prerequisites. He painfully resists when teachers and the counselor try to help. When his older sister's campaign posters for seventh-grade class president are defaced in a particularly ugly way by clique leaders, the parents decide to leave town. They buy an Alabama houseboat over the telephone with the trade of their automobile and practically the last of their savings, a decision that leads to heartbreakingly hard work and even danger. Through Charles's narration, Klise offers a stunningly realistic look at the concatenations that the boy's obsessive thinking weaves. Each member of the family is carefully delineated. The Harrisongs' searching and differing perceptions of God will certainly spark discussion. Some of the siblings are naturally sunny, while others cry frequently. The parents make mistakes and argue, but this family's true love and deep engagement with one another mean that everyone can forgive and pull together. And, yes, sometimes it does take some real trouble to bring about the realization that everyday problems aren't real problems at all. A superb psychological novel.–Cindy Darling Codell, formerly at Clark Middle School, Winchester, KY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Gr. 5-8. Charles Harrisong, a neurotic 11-year-old, lives in Normal, Illinois, a cruel irony considering that his large, poor, anything-but-normal family is one of the "Most Embarrassing Things in [His] Life." Case in point: His free-spirited sister, Clara, runs for seventh-grade president, convinced that "the awesome power of positive thinking" can trump the stigma of belonging to the ragtag Harrisong tribe. When Clara's campaign posters are defaced by the popular clique, the siblings' horrified parents react boldly, pulling their kids out of school, moving to Alabama's gulf coast, and launching a radical new life aboard a fixer-upper houseboat.^B Klise, who cocreated several other middle-grade novels with her sister, is prone to sophisticated, slightly dyspeptic observations that don't always seem convincing coming from a sixth-grader, and the references to To Kill a Mockingbird (Charles identifies with Boo Radley) will go over the heads of many. Even so, readers as precocious as Charles will sympathize with the social anxieties Klise probes, and feel comforted by her uptight protagonist's gradual relaxation into the "extraordinary ordinariness" of life. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
Grade 6-9–Charles Harrisong is obsessed with the idea that he is strange and can't fit in with the sixth grade in Normal, IL. He feels that he possesses a special talent, the ability to know what people are really saying and thinking, all of which, he is sure, is directed at him and is negative to the extreme. He is especially embarrassed that his family rents rather than owns a home, wears home-sewn clothes, and lacks the material things that the other students feel are prerequisites. He painfully resists when teachers and the counselor try to help. When his older sister's campaign posters for seventh-grade class president are defaced in a particularly ugly way by clique leaders, the parents decide to leave town. They buy an Alabama houseboat over the telephone with the trade of their automobile and practically the last of their savings, a decision that leads to heartbreakingly hard work and even danger. Through Charles's narration, Klise offers a stunningly realistic look at the concatenations that the boy's obsessive thinking weaves. Each member of the family is carefully delineated. The Harrisongs' searching and differing perceptions of God will certainly spark discussion. Some of the siblings are naturally sunny, while others cry frequently. The parents make mistakes and argue, but this family's true love and deep engagement with one another mean that everyone can forgive and pull together. And, yes, sometimes it does take some real trouble to bring about the realization that everyday problems aren't real problems at all. A superb psychological novel.–Cindy Darling Codell, formerly at Clark Middle School, Winchester, KY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Gr. 5-8. Charles Harrisong, a neurotic 11-year-old, lives in Normal, Illinois, a cruel irony considering that his large, poor, anything-but-normal family is one of the "Most Embarrassing Things in [His] Life." Case in point: His free-spirited sister, Clara, runs for seventh-grade president, convinced that "the awesome power of positive thinking" can trump the stigma of belonging to the ragtag Harrisong tribe. When Clara's campaign posters are defaced by the popular clique, the siblings' horrified parents react boldly, pulling their kids out of school, moving to Alabama's gulf coast, and launching a radical new life aboard a fixer-upper houseboat.^B Klise, who cocreated several other middle-grade novels with her sister, is prone to sophisticated, slightly dyspeptic observations that don't always seem convincing coming from a sixth-grader, and the references to To Kill a Mockingbird (Charles identifies with Boo Radley) will go over the heads of many. Even so, readers as precocious as Charles will sympathize with the social anxieties Klise probes, and feel comforted by her uptight protagonist's gradual relaxation into the "extraordinary ordinariness" of life. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
Product Details
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