Anna Kerz

After the death of his father, Jeremy and his mom move away from their home in rural Nova Scotia to live with an aunt in Toronto. Jeremy's adjusting to the move just fine--making friends, doing okay in school--but the memories (and guilt) about the accident that killed his father haunt him, particularly in his dreams. School is mostly okay, though--until he gets paired up with the most annoying boy in the class for the mealworm project. Aaron is such a pain and so hard to deal with that Jeremy almost can't help being mean to him, and that goes double when he finds out that Aaron considers Jeremy his best friend.

There's a lot of boy-appeal here, despite its tendency toward the sentimental. Themes of grief and loss, friendship, identity, and acceptance are all present and balanced against each other; no particular theme is superimposed too obviously over the others. While the author never talks down to children, her word choices are occasionally a little elderly. Still, a worthwhile book even just for not treating Jeremy's nightmare-induced bedwetting as shameful.

(Upper-elementary, maybe grades 4-6?)… (mehr)