By Jordan Sonnenblick
Lexile 930
Alex has made
mistakes in his life and does not deal well with the problems with his
family. After having to deal with a
cheating father, and a mother that does not condone his negative behavior, Alex
goes for a drunken joyride to numb his pain.
His mother’s car is his weapon, and his victim is an innocent, $500
gnome. Because of his wild ride, he is
now given the task of committing to 100 hours of community service with a cross
old man, Sol, in a nursing home. Though Alex tries to not care about Sol, over
time he finds that they have the common love of music, and the pain of family
problems.
Alex is a guitar
player, as Sol once was as well. Bonding over their love of music, Alex finds
out that Sol was not always so irritated and angry. He once had a life filled with the love of
his life and daughter. Much like Alex,
he lost all of those things and regressed into a life filled with misery. A side story includes Alex’s love of his best
Laurie. He does not realize how much he
cares about her until Sol starts cracking jokes and tries to make Alex jealous
by calling Laurie his wife. By the end
of the book, Alex and Sol have become close friends whom care about one another
very much. On the evening of a dance
that Alex is attending, Sol becomes ill and is taken to the hospital. Before dying, Sol gives Alex his old guitar
as a sign of their friendship. The story
closes with Alex discovering that the judge that issued his community service
was actually Sol’s daughter…
After reading this book, I felt that it was actually fantastic for my students. Though there were some allusions of sexual activity between Alex and Laurie, it never crossed the line of being inappropriate. Honestly, I felt like a lot of my students could understand where Alex was coming from in this story. A lot of my students have unresolved anger issues, and they also get in trouble with the law. I almost wish that some of them would be assigned community service so that they could also learn kindness and understanding for others. I enjoyed reading this book, and found that it was hard to put down.
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