More Notes, Please

Alex is mad. His dad left with Alex's 3rd grade teacher and his mother has started dating. It's all too much, so after he sneaks a little too much of his dad's forgotten booze, he heads off in his mother's car to give his father a piece of his mind. Not only is Alex wasted, he has no driver's license. He doesn't make it. Luckily, the only casualty is ego and a French Lawn Gnome. His punishment? Community service with the most curmudgeonly prankster in the nursing home. Specially selected by his furious mother.

For whatever reason, I hesitated reading Jordan Sonnenblick's Notes From

The Midnight Driver. For no reason, really. The cover is hilarious. I think that when I first saw it I may still have been in the downward spiral that was King Dork and the last thing I wanted to read was another book about some obnoxious teen boy being an idiot. That and drunk driving pisses me off.

Right. So Notes was not that book.

Well, yeah, there was the drunk driving, but Alex was held completely responsible for it - there were consequences that led our boy to grow from the point of a "but nobody got hurt!" defense to the acceptance of guilt & repercussions. It was great. It was funny and touching, and I read it in one sitting, simply because I could. Alex was dynamic and his growth was believable. My only quibble was that I wish that there had been more actual notes. They were some of the books finest moments, and obviously the inspiration for the title. More would have been better.

I have not read Sonnenblick's other title, Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie, but I've heard wonderful things. Easy sell to fans of Abundance of Katherines and Born to Rock.