Enchanting Review: 13

13
JASON ROBERT BROWN & DAN ELISH
Contemporary Young Adult
Laura Geringer Books
ISBN# 978-0-06-078749-3
201 pages
$15.99
Trade – Available July 2008

Rating: 4 Enchantments

Twelve-year old Evan Goldman lives with his parents in Manhattan until his father leaves the family for another woman. His mother needs a change of scenery after the divorce, so they move to Appleton, Indiana in the middle of summer.

As Evan moves and gets adjusted, he meets a girl named Patrice who he really relates to. But when school starts, he is befriended by Brett, Fudge, Eddie, Lucy and Kendra. These are the cool kids. Patrice and Archie (another friend) are considered geeks. The cool kids and the geeks do not mix because of their personality differences. Evan has to figure out which group contains his real friends, who will attend his Bar Mitzvah, a discovery he makes after a bunch of strange and really humorous events.

This story is about a young Jewish boy entering puberty and becoming a man, and moving to a new state and adapting to a new life. It contains many universal themes – friendship, popularity, being true to yourself – to name a few.

I thought this was a great book! In fact, I read it in one sitting. It felt very authentic; the situations that Evan gets into are exactly the same situations a preteen would encounter. His reactions were typical, but presented in a way that was funny and made me want to keep reading. When Evan was a jerk to his friends to get in with the ‘cool’ kids, I liked the fact that he humbled himself and made everything right with his true friends when he realized his mistake. This is a great book that most preteens would love. I loved it and would definitely recommend it to readers my age.

These are two authors I would read again. They love to hear from their readers. They can be reached through their respective websites at www.jasonrobertbrown.com or www.danelish.com.


Karoline
ENCHANTING REVIEWS
August 2008