Breakfast with Neruda

March 15, 2016
Two kids are obliged to spend their summers working with the janitors to clean out the high school before it reopens in the fall. Michael didn't mean to blow up the school. His plan was to blow up his ex-best friend's car with those bundles of firecrackers. But authorities didn't quite believe him, so he was sentenced to community service over the summer. Shelly smokes on school grounds--that's her excuse, anyway, for the summerlong detention. The two white teens find plenty to talk about and plenty to hide as they grow close over the long days. They share a passion for reading, especially the poetry of Pablo Neruda, and they slowly reveal their secrets to each other. Together, Michael and Shelly confront the realities they've been dealt and struggle to move forward together. Moe uses lyrical language to introduce teenagers whose problems go beyond bullying or unrequited love. She treats Michael's unusual home situation with realistic grace, while the relationship between the two teenagers is organic and interesting. Occasionally, the imagery is distractingly pat, as when Shelly overidentifies with two ducks far from water and says she and Michael are "kind of like those ducks....An odd pair of misfits, way out of our leagues." A summerlong punishment becomes a sensitive, thoughtful novel. (Fiction. 14-18)

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May 1, 2016

Gr 9 Up-This debut novel offers honest yet optimistic insight into teenage homelessness and hoarding. Despite getting expelled for bringing a bomb to school, Michael Flynn, 18, is a straight-A honors student with good manners. During the summer, he is relegated to cleaning the school to avoid jail time. There, he meets fellow rebel Shelly, who discovers that Michael lives in his station wagon. The two form a relationship but keep secrets from each other. Michael finds out the reason his mom hoards and never brings it up to her, yet a quarter of the book is his mother's diary, which never feels completely integrated into the text. Though the mother's entries provide context for Michael's family's issues, they make the work feel disjointed. Michael also visits his father, whom he researched throughout the novel, but this narrative thread doesn't get fully resolved. Michael is a likable protagonist. However, the characters aren't dynamic, and the work's dialogue varies and is inauthentic to the characters. The author's important message about homeless teens and how people shouldn't judge them gets confused in the inconsistent writing style. The conclusion also lacks punch.

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2016
Grades 9-12 After attempting to blow up his exbest friend's car, Michael Flynn is not only suspended but also sentenced to a summer-long stint as his high school's janitorial assistant. Though grueling, the early shifts, weeding, and locker clean-ups are the least of his problems; his father's identity is a sheltered secret, his closest friends have betrayed him, and his mother's compulsive hoarding has transformed Michael's home into an uninhabitable junkyard. While he retreats to his Ford station wagon, nicknamed the Blue Whale, his half sister Annie escapes to the comforts of the back porch. Seemingly alone, Michael stumbles upon outcast Shelly, his new community-service companion. The two share deeply dysfunctional pasts, a profound love of literature, and, yes, numerous summer breakfasts. Fueled by the search for his father, Michael and Shelly uncover many of their own most uncomfortable truths. Though the misfits-stuck-together formula is nothing new, this debut is nevertheless flecked with an endearing blend of idealism, empathy, and quirk.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)