Jake

Booklist (September 1, 2010 (Vol. 107, No. 1)) Grades 3-6. After his widowed mother falls in an icy parking lot, breaks her leg, and is hospitalized, 10-year-old Jake is scared, even though he gets a lot of support from his caring Baltimore neighbors and from his ex–U.S. Marine grandfather, who, along with his old dog, Max, visits for the first time from North Carolina to help out. True to Jake’s viewpoint, the spare, first-person narrative is filled with immediate dialogue and small details that eloquently reveal Jake’s worry about his mother (and his guilt when he forgets to worry), as well as his wariness of strange, tough-love Grandpa and his crabby pet. Jake confronts Grandpa: Why didn't you ever come visit us? By the end, though, he bonds with both Grandpa and Max, and the story’s warm climax is a cozy Christmas party in Mom’s hospital ward with caring friends and neighbors. Never message-heavy, the drama about the meaning of family will touch readers.