June’s off to a solid, summer-reading start with new books from Kathy Erskine and Erica Perl.
From Kathy, whose Mockingbird won the National Book Award last year, we have The Absolute Value of Mike, where a 14-year-old boy with a math learning disability learns that he has other abilities that more than make up for it. The story is played out in a Pennsylvania town where Scrapple is king and the townspeople — Mike’s relatives among them — are about as quirky as they come.
To welcome Kathy’s new book, which was released on June 9, I thought I’d play you:
Erica’s book, When Life Gives You OJ, is out TODAY, TODAY, TODAY. The book, features Zelly Fried, 11 years old and trying to fit in a strange new world in Vermont. A dog, she thinks, could make everything right. And then she meets OJ, the practice dog her grandfather gives her, which, yep, is really an orange juice container.
To welcome this new book from the creator of Chicken Butt (I’ve always wanted to say that) I thought I’d play you the Monkees’ I’m Gonna Buy Me a Dog.
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Erica’s trailer for this book is wonderful, so I thought I’d link to that as well.
Happy Book Birthday to Kathy and Erica!