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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
Enjoyment level was a five star, although I think [b:Okay for Now|15814541|Okay for Now|Gary D. Schmidt|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348098495l/15814541._SX50_.jpg|14044509] remains my favorite of the three Schmidt books I've read ([b:The Wednesday Wars|556136|The Wednesday Wars|Gary D. Schmidt|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442044636l/556136._SX50_.jpg|2586820] being the third). This book does require some suspension of belief, but it's also not nonfiction, so that doesn't bother me. A bit of a [b:Mary Poppins|22749868|Mary Poppins (Mary Poppins, #1)|P.L. Travers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1416445415l/22749868._SX50_.jpg|2768848] feel to the story. I loved learning about cricket. Kind of makes me want to re-watch the movie Lagaan.
I work with some students who could use help dealing with similar difficulties that "young Master Carter" faced, and would love the storytelling of Schmidt. I felt quite similarly about the issues discussed in The Wednesday Wars and Okay for Now, too. I think it is sometimes forgotten that middle grade fiction is written toward eight to twelve year-olds. Twelve year-olds have to face some heavy things. Likeyounger brothers who have died, dads who have abandoned their families, and families that are not coping with their burdens/sorrows well. And even thirteen or fourteen year-olds (assuming they don't feel embarrassed by the cover of the book or for reading something "younger") ESPECIALLY if they are not as strong readers, can get quite a bit out of a middle grade novel. Obviously I think adults can benefit too, as I picked this one up for my own personal enjoyment. My younger brother read Okay For Now in his 7th or 8th grade honors English class, and it was one of the more popular books assigned that year.
I work with some students who could use help dealing with similar difficulties that "young Master Carter" faced, and would love the storytelling of Schmidt. I felt quite similarly about the issues discussed in The Wednesday Wars and Okay for Now, too. I think it is sometimes forgotten that middle grade fiction is written toward eight to twelve year-olds. Twelve year-olds have to face some heavy things. Like
Carter’s family is a bit of a mess. On their first day of school, there are lunches to pack, socks to find, ribbons to tie, and dog vomit to clean up. So when an English butler appears on the doorstep just as Carter is heading out to buy milk, it solves a lot of immediate problems. Still, there are other issues that Carter is still grappling with, including grief and loss. As the story continues, readers learn more about the darkness in Carter’s family and his role as the oldest to be strong for everyone. As Carter matches wits with the butler who seeks to control all of Carter’s free time, the two become a team and along the way start a cricket league at Carter’s new school. As the past becomes too much for Carter to bear alone, he learns about the power of sports, teams and a good butler.
Schmidt takes the spirit of Nanny McPhee and Mary Poppins and gives us a male version in Mr. Bowles-Fitzpatrick. The book demands a certain amount of setting aside of disbelief for things like cricket being embraced by an entire middle school and a twelve-year-old driving a car. It is mix of lighthearted storytelling and deeper subjects, moving from eliciting laughter into moments of real tragedy with skill. Readers may not fully understand cricket by the end, but will know what a sticky wicket actually is and how the basics work.
Carter is a protagonist who is dealing with a lot. As the book progresses, he learns how vital he is for his little sisters and how his interacting in their lives is powerful. He steadily builds confidence as the story continues with the final scenes fully demonstrating not only his person growth but also the depth of his struggles. As the tragedies of his family are revealed, readers will be amazed that Carter continues on as he does despite it all. He is a figure of resilience and humor.
Another winner from a master storyteller, this novel for middle graders introduces cricket and one amazing butler. Appropriate for ages 9-12.
Schmidt takes the spirit of Nanny McPhee and Mary Poppins and gives us a male version in Mr. Bowles-Fitzpatrick. The book demands a certain amount of setting aside of disbelief for things like cricket being embraced by an entire middle school and a twelve-year-old driving a car. It is mix of lighthearted storytelling and deeper subjects, moving from eliciting laughter into moments of real tragedy with skill. Readers may not fully understand cricket by the end, but will know what a sticky wicket actually is and how the basics work.
Carter is a protagonist who is dealing with a lot. As the book progresses, he learns how vital he is for his little sisters and how his interacting in their lives is powerful. He steadily builds confidence as the story continues with the final scenes fully demonstrating not only his person growth but also the depth of his struggles. As the tragedies of his family are revealed, readers will be amazed that Carter continues on as he does despite it all. He is a figure of resilience and humor.
Another winner from a master storyteller, this novel for middle graders introduces cricket and one amazing butler. Appropriate for ages 9-12.
I was so disappointed in this book. Yes, of course I teared up at parts, and yes, I love the way Schmidt doesn't write down to kids. But there were so many holes for me. Carter and his dad can afford an Australian camping trip, but back home, his mother can't replace her car? His dad is British but he enlisted in the US Army? A 12 year old drives a Bentley around town and no one notices? And least believable for me: an entire American middle school loses its collective mind for cricket? Even if we slap a magical realism label on this, the realistic part is supposed to be realistic, right? I'm curious to see if I can find the right kid for this book. It might do well in upper elementary, but I can't see a student who loved The Wednesday Wars wanting to read this.
I still don't understand cricket in the least. This one didn't hit me as hard as his other two books, as others have said. The best scene was the very first cricket practice, by far, and the worst was the constant harping of the Butler on the superiority of English proper ways. This would have been fine if it had also had any mention of, you know, imperialism, class issues in England that contributed heavily to all the practices he was so fond of, or really acknowledged any faults at all in English customs.
I have a lot of thoughts about this book, which I enjoyed overall. The writing was lovely, but the overall tone felt off to me, as if it was an earnest realistic fiction book that accidentally fell into a quasi-fantasy world.
First what I loved: the sentence level writing was fantastic. The repetition was used perfectly, the same words or phrases used in a row really created a cadence, and a particular voice for Carter. I thought the emotions of the book were spot on, both in the depth of feeling and the ways in which some adults were failing Carter while others were trying to help.
I had a harder time swallowing all of the actual details of the book. I suppose this is like Louisiana's Way Home, where you're supposed to realize that it's not realistic fiction, even though every other part of the book signals that's it's realistic. The Butler was such a complete caricature of what an American thinks a British person, specifically a British Butler, would be like that I half-expected it to be some sort of farce, where he turns out to be playing some sort of complicated long con simply because that seemed more plausible. The fact that the entire sixth grade is furious at Carter because his oral report is not what they're expecting seemed odd to me (although I'm willing to give it a pass because it might be one of those things where the kids are just teasing him or trying to make a connection with a kid they don't know well and he's taking it the wrong way. I had kids call me Acorn for months after a report on edible acorns in the seventh grade.) That the entire school is obsessed with cricket was also a little over the top, especially since the entire school is obsessed, yet they don't have enough kids to field an entire team because ONLY the eighth grade boys cross country team wanted to sign up and that only eighth graders could sign up - why would they specifically say that only eighth graders could do it, when they had every reason to believe that they wouldn't get enough kids without opening it up? Actually, I can answer that: because every single thing the Butler does, ever, is in service to helping Carter grow as a person. So clearly he, as coach, pulled strings to make it so that only Carter and his friend could be sixth graders on the team, even if that wasn't good for the sport or the school as a whole. EVERY SINGLE THING the Butler does is in service to Carter. I even got the feeling that things the Butler did that were nice for his sisters were really only done to be a role model for Carter. Maybe that's Carter's self-centered perceptions coming through, but it bears out. Once Carter has his emotional breakthrough, the Butler immediately leaves to work things out with Carter's father - which, actually, was both showcasing how the Butler's life revolved around Carter, and was a weird aberration in his behavior, because he for sure should have realized that disappearing without notice and with no word about when he'd be back would NOT be taken well by Carter or by his sisters, who'd only learned their father wouldn't be back a few days beforehand, and what we'd learned of him before that suggests that he would have prepared everyone much more thoroughly. You don't just get on a plane for Germany on a few hours notice, which implies he knew very well he'd be leaving the day after the game.
The money didn't make sense either. The family at the beginning is hurting for money (although that's Carter telling us this....and then discussing the expensive trip to Australia that he took), yet the grandfather had enough money that he could endow an arts education, have plenty for "traveling", and endow a lifetime engagement by the Butler? Most extremely rich families that I know of in real life pass that sort of wealth down through the generations. I suppose the father may have been a total jerk to his own father and been essentially disowned until the father's death? The kids don't seem to have a relationship with their grandfather, or even appear to have met him, despite that he clearly had enough money to fly over from England any time he wanted.
First what I loved: the sentence level writing was fantastic. The repetition was used perfectly, the same words or phrases used in a row really created a cadence, and a particular voice for Carter. I thought the emotions of the book were spot on, both in the depth of feeling and the ways in which some adults were failing Carter while others were trying to help.
I had a harder time swallowing all of the actual details of the book. I suppose this is like Louisiana's Way Home, where you're supposed to realize that it's not realistic fiction, even though every other part of the book signals that's it's realistic. The Butler was such a complete caricature of what an American thinks a British person, specifically a British Butler, would be like that I half-expected it to be some sort of farce, where he turns out to be playing some sort of complicated long con simply because that seemed more plausible. The fact that the entire sixth grade is furious at Carter because his oral report is not what they're expecting seemed odd to me (although I'm willing to give it a pass because it might be one of those things where the kids are just teasing him or trying to make a connection with a kid they don't know well and he's taking it the wrong way. I had kids call me Acorn for months after a report on edible acorns in the seventh grade.) That the entire school is obsessed with cricket was also a little over the top, especially since the entire school is obsessed, yet they don't have enough kids to field an entire team because ONLY the eighth grade boys cross country team wanted to sign up and that only eighth graders could sign up - why would they specifically say that only eighth graders could do it, when they had every reason to believe that they wouldn't get enough kids without opening it up? Actually, I can answer that: because every single thing the Butler does, ever, is in service to helping Carter grow as a person. So clearly he, as coach, pulled strings to make it so that only Carter and his friend could be sixth graders on the team, even if that wasn't good for the sport or the school as a whole. EVERY SINGLE THING the Butler does is in service to Carter. I even got the feeling that things the Butler did that were nice for his sisters were really only done to be a role model for Carter. Maybe that's Carter's self-centered perceptions coming through, but it bears out. Once Carter has his emotional breakthrough, the Butler immediately leaves to work things out with Carter's father - which, actually, was both showcasing how the Butler's life revolved around Carter, and was a weird aberration in his behavior, because he for sure should have realized that disappearing without notice and with no word about when he'd be back would NOT be taken well by Carter or by his sisters, who'd only learned their father wouldn't be back a few days beforehand, and what we'd learned of him before that suggests that he would have prepared everyone much more thoroughly. You don't just get on a plane for Germany on a few hours notice, which implies he knew very well he'd be leaving the day after the game.
The money didn't make sense either. The family at the beginning is hurting for money (although that's Carter telling us this....and then discussing the expensive trip to Australia that he took), yet the grandfather had enough money that he could endow an arts education, have plenty for "traveling", and endow a lifetime engagement by the Butler? Most extremely rich families that I know of in real life pass that sort of wealth down through the generations. I suppose the father may have been a total jerk to his own father and been essentially disowned until the father's death? The kids don't seem to have a relationship with their grandfather, or even appear to have met him, despite that he clearly had enough money to fly over from England any time he wanted.