The Lucky Kind

April 15, 2011

Unexpected relatives complicate a teen's life.

In his junior year at a private school in Manhattan, Nick's biggest concern is finally getting the attention of Eden, a girl he's known since kindergarten. Nick's ordinary, stable home life is upended when his father gets a phone call from a stranger named Sam. After a tension-filled weekend, Nick's father reveals that Sam is the son he and his girlfriend gave up for adoption 30 years ago. Nick feels betrayed by the enormity of the secret that his parents have kept, and his anger at them threatens to taint his new relationship with Eden. He can't separate his emotions about his family from his feelings for Eden and abruptly breaks up with her after sleeping together. His best friend Stevie tries to point out that he's probably afraid of making the same mistake his father made. It's not until Nick meets Sam and learns the details of his non-Jewish father's early life in small-town Ohio that he can come to grips with his family's new reality. Nick is lucky in his choice of girlfriend—Eden patiently waits for him to sort things out.

Sheinmel effectively uses a breezy, often humorous first-person voice that's deceptively slight in its handling of deep issues, even as Nick does the hard emotional work to pull himself out of the depths of his self-pity. (Fiction. 12 & up)

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July 1, 2011

Gr 9 Up-Life has been good to high school junior Nick Brandt, the only child of happily married parents, and winning the heart of the girl of his dreams, Eden Reiss, only makes things sweeter. But then Nick receives some surprising news: he's not really an only child. His dad had a baby with his high school sweetheart, and the child was given up for adoption. Now an adult, Sam Roth reenters his biological father's life and, in doing so, disrupts Nick's. He's angry at Dad for keeping this secret and confused about how this knowledge will affect his relationship with Eden as it weighs heavily on his mind as they have their first sexual experience. Sheinmel deftly navigates the subtle complexities of her protagonist's concerns, especially the way he withdraws from Eden. There's a tenderness in their relationship, as well as in his friendship with his best buddy, Stevie, that is reminiscent of Steve Kluger's My Most Excellent Year (Dial, 2008). Teens will relate to Nick even though he exaggerates the severity of his situation; his parents have accepted the past just fine and Sam's entrance doesn't cause any drama outside of that which Nick has read into it. The first-person narration is honest and compelling, and the book's thoughtful nature will appeal to readers who like more introspective realistic fiction.-Jennifer Barnes, Malden Public Library, MA

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