Jaco Jacobs

13 year old boy, middle child, originally written in Afrikaans. Feels like it would be good for middle schoolers -- just getting into boy-girl romance, hitting the awkward pretty hard. Some environmental awareness (tree sitting protest), some humor, and in general a nice snapshot of contemporary life for tweens in Africa as opposed to an American perspective. There's a lot of jerk behavior from Marnus' brothers, and kindness from the community. On the whole, an enjoyable read, if not a fast paced one.… (mehr)

Well, you don’t see a lot of books set in South Africa- so that’s why I accepted this ARC knowing nothing else about it.
Turns out it was a great decision as this coming of age book was short, sweet and quirky. Clucky (Martin) is a math guy and he sees the world through numbers. He meets a neighbor kid named Vusi who wants to make a zombie movie and unfortunately also has Hodgkins disease. The two boys end make making the movie working through the challenges of Vusi’s reality of treatments and staying inside.

There are some heavy themes but it is solidly MG and I think that kids in grades 4-6 will enjoy this look into life in South Africa.… (mehr)