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If you’ve read enough fiction for teens, you might think that the setup for this week’s
Pick sounds pretty predictable:
An angry teen gets drunk, crashes his car, is sentenced to do community service by visiting
the meanest geezer in town, then learns heartwarming intergenerational lessons from the very same
geezer.
Like I said: This week’s Pick sounds predictable, but actually, it’s anything but.
After Alex Gregory decapitates a gnome, wraps his car around a tree, and vomits all over
the cop who’s come to arrest him, you’d think his life could only go uphill from there.
Instead, Alex’s life gets significantly worse when he’s sentenced to 100 hours with
Sol—a crotchety resident at the Egbert P. Johnson Memorial Home for the Aged. Alex begs
his judge for mercy—offering to double his community service time, if only she’ll switch
him to tree-planting or something.
No such luck. Alex is stuck with Sol and, perhaps not surprisingly, the two form an
unusual bond. Sol never becomes easy to get along with, but as Alex finds common ground,
he also learns some lessons about the elderly, and about Sol, and about his own life. Lessons
that even change his miserable junior year into a memorable one.
I loved this book. It’s hysterically funny and heartwarming and awkward—everything
a book for teens should be, but rarely is. Best of all, you’ll love the anything-but-predictable
Alex, who manages to be both sarcastic and sweet as he stumbles, then finds his way.