Skip to main content

Review: The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman

Image
By

 

The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman 
By Gennifer Choldenko 
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2024. Fiction. 309 pages. 

Eleven-year-old Hank’s mom doesn’t come home one night, leaving Hank to care for his three-year-old sister, Boo. When it is almost a week later and mom still hasn’t come home, Hank decides to head to a Lou Ann’s house (a stranger that his mom has listed as his “emergency contact” on his school form). But with help from Lou Ann comes social workers and people asking Hank a whole lot of questions about his mom that he isn’t sure he can or wants to answer. 

This is a powerful story about a kid who loves fiercely. He loves his sister and is determined to do any hard thing to keep her safe. He loves his mom, even though he knows he can’t rely on her. And he is trying to decide if he can care about all the other people that come into his life who may disappear when the social services workers figure out what to do with him. This story made me laugh and cry. It made me think and want to stand up and love all the kids who need my help. It made me want more. More of Hank. More of Boo. More of me noticing what is happening around me. And more of recognizing what good things are happening in my life. This is a powerhouse of a book. Kids who want solid characters who are facing hard things with guts and determination will want to meet Hank and read what happens.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Faker

By
Faker By Gordon Korman New York: Scholastic Press, 2024. Fiction. 214 pages. 12-year-old Trey is used to starting over at a new school -- he has the routine perfectly memorized: make new friends, introduce his dad to the wealthy parents of his new friends, and "Houdini" themselves out of there before they get caught running their latest scam. Trey's dad is a master con artist, and Trey has just been promoted to full-partner. Their new scheme for the next big score brings them to the affluent suburb of Boxelder, TN where Trey's dad has cooked up a fake electric car company for investors to buy into. The only problem is that Trey is starting to grow tired of moving around and never putting down roots, especially after forming a fast friendship with Logan and developing a crush on Kaylee, a socially conscious girl in his class. As Trey longs for a normal life, is there any way he can convince his dad to get out of the family business? Gordon Korman is a perennial favorit...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Bletchley Riddle

By
  The Bletchley Riddle By Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin New York: Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2024. Fiction. 392 pages. It's spring of 1940, Hitler has swept through most of Europe, and people believe England will be next. Half Polish-Jewish, half American Jakob has been recruited from Cambridge to Bletchley Park where they are working on deciphering the enigma machine. Jakob's sister Lizzie, meanwhile, is being forced to move from London to Cleveland to live with her grandmother after her mother disappeared in a 1939 attack in Poland. Lizzie manages to escape the keeper her grandmother sent for her to bring her to America and makes her way to Bletchley, where she's eventually given the task of delivering messages between departments. When secret messages begin appearing with Lizzie's belongings, she must decipher them to find the truth about her mother's past and location, while keeping the secrets away from the MI5 agent that seems a little t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dragon Run

By
Dragon Run by Patrick Matthews Scholastic, 2013.  336 pgs.  Fantasy      Al Pilgrommor is excited for Testing Day, when he will receive his rank, a tattooed number on the back of his neck, and a path forward to his future occupation and life.  He feels confident because his parents were fours on a scale of seven, but he is worried for his friend Wisp who doesn't have much of a chance of scoring above a two at best. But when Al is scored a zero, he not only has no prospects, he may lose his life as the dreaded Cullers are unleashed to kill him and his family to purify the land's bloodlines.  Al's world is ruled by dragons--the lords and supposed creators of humankind--so he thinks that even if he survives, he will have to make his living as a beggar or thief. But when Al sticks up for his Earther friend in front of Magister Ludi, he is drawn into the struggle of a secret organization hoping to destroy the Cullers, and perhaps the dragons them...
1 comment
Read more