Jumping the Scratch
Grade 5-7 After his father runs off with the cashier at the MicroMart, Jamie Reardon and his mother move from Battle Creek to Traverse City in northern Michigan to live with Aunt Sapphy at the Wondrous Acres trailer park. His aunt had an accident at the cherry factory and is unable to make any new memories. Jamie wants to find the magic trigger that will help her memory get unstuck, or jump the scratch, like a needle on a record. Ironically, he is trying to forget what happened on Christmas Eve involving a button pressed into his cheek, the taste of butterscotch candy, and Old Gray, the manager of the trailer park. The memory haunts his days and inhibits his making friends or doing well in school. Weeks alludes to sexual abuse, but with a broad brush and no graphic details. When Jamie tells Aunt Sapphy, just to unload his guilt and speak the words, she jumps the scratch and gets him help. Weeks perfectly captures not only the guilt, shame, and pain of the abused boy but also the tenor of a fifth-grade classroom from the point of view of a new student who is friendless, targeted, and belittled by an insensitive teacher. Touches of humor ameliorate the pain and poignancy. Another winner from the author ofSo Be It(HarperCollins, 2005), which also looks at the redemptive power of memory.Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, MECopyright &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.