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Searching... Oakdale Library | TEEN FICTION SCH | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | TEEN FICTION SCH | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Thirteen-year-old Travis has a secret: he can't read. But a shrewd teacher and a sassy girl are about to change everything in this witty and deeply moving novel.
Travis is missing his old home in the country, and he's missing his old hound, Rosco. Now there's just the cramped place he shares with his well-meaning but alcoholic grandpa, a new school, and the dreaded routine of passing when he's called on to read out loud. But that's before Travis meets Mr. McQueen, who doesn't take "pass" for an answer -- a rare teacher whose savvy persistence has Travis slowly unlocking a book on the natural world. And it's before Travis is noticed by Velveeta, a girl whose wry banter and colorful scarves belie some hard secrets of her own. With sympathy, humor, and disarming honesty, Pat Schmatz brings to life a cast of utterly believable characters -- and captures the moments of trust and connection that make all the difference.
Author Notes
Pat Schmatz is the author of three previous novels for teens. She lives in rural Wisconsin.
Reviews (4)
Horn Book Review
"Stupid bluefish" Travis Roberts finds "lowlife trailer-trash loser" Vida "Velveeta" Wojciehowski in a lovely, understated book that celebrates the possibility of a kind and humane friendship between an eighth-grade girl and boy. Travis and Velveeta meet while both are hurting from losses in their lives: Travis's beloved dog has disappeared and his alcoholic grandfather has summarily moved them from their old house; Velveeta's friend and mentor Calvin, who introduced her to the world of books and old movies and offered her sanctuary from her unhappy home life, has just died. They both have weighty secrets to protect. Like two lonely planets in a tentative gravitational pull, they spiral toward each other. Travis's story is told in third person, each chapter followed by a first-person narrative by Velveeta, and it's a testament to Schmatz's craft that she so eloquently brings two ordinary young people to life on the page, rooting the novel in subtleties that make all the difference -- Travis's pretty eyes "full of words," his "shadow smile," the gestures of a boy and a girl discovering ways to be themselves in the world. With allusions to To Kill a Mockingbird and Marcus Zusak's The Book Thief, this novel is also an ode to the significance of reading in the lives of young people and to a teacher who knows the power literature can wield. Unique and original, believable and poignant, this is a book with power of its own. dean schneider (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
His parents dead, 14-year-old Travis lives with his alcoholic grandfather and his beloved dog, Rosco. When he and his grandfather move to a new town, the dog disappears, and Travis is devastated. Worse, he feels like a bluefish, his word for stupid. And, indeed, school is a struggle for him because, as the the reader soon discovers, he has a closely guarded secret. Things begin to change when he meets an eccentric, extroverted girl who calls herself Velveeta. Though she has secrets of her own, she and Travis become friends and cautiously, with the help of an understanding teacher, begin to find ways to deal with their troubles and losses. Travis and Velveeta (her real name is Vida) are sympathetic characters with believable problems. Though this novel offers few surprises and an oddly inconclusive ending, the story is well written and deals realistically with issues that plague many teens.--Cart, Michael Copyright 2010 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 6-8-Travis is secretive and Velveeta is into everyone's business. Their sympathetic, patient English teacher steps in, helping Travis with a learning issue and steering Velveeta towards more productive behavior. The two students become friends and learn to exercise some control over their lives. Through exceptional pacing and intonation, Daniels and Rudd fully express the yin and yang of troubled tweens on the cusp of young adulthood. The focus on personal growth makes this perfect for class discussions centering on social-emotional standards, such as this one from the Madison (WI) Metropolitan School District curriculum: MMSD SELS Health 1,3 Students will recognize that individuals have personal power to set and achieve goals. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A young teen loner graduallylearns to acceptthe friendship of an outspoken girl in thisproblem novel filled with likable, idiosyncratic characters.Travis is filled with sullen resentment toward his recovering alcoholic grandfather, who moved them away from their old house despite Travis's devastation having to leave behind his lost dog, Rosco. At his new school, Travis is surprised to land on the radar of confident, kindVelveeta, and he increasingly looks forward to her friendly overtures each day, even as he worries that she might discover a secret of which he's deeply ashamed.In the meantime, Velveeta struggleswith familytrouble of herown and with the loss of a dear friend. A cast of richly developed characters peoples this work of contemporary fiction, told in the third person from Travis' point of view, with first-person vignettes from Velveeta's perspective peppered throughout. An ongoing reference to Markus Zusak's The Book Thief (2006) serves the themes of this novel well. Both teens have adults outside of their families whom they are able to trust, but at times these adults feel a little too heart-of-goldidealizedsadly, it's somehow hard to picture a public librarian actually givinga key to the building to a kid whose home isn't a safe place. Fortunately, these clichd moments are brief.A story rife with unusual honesty andhope. (Fiction. 12-16)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
