30 Oct / Eggs by Jerry Spinelli
David, age 9, and Primrose, age 13, make for strange friends, especially with the rate at which they seem to enjoy exchanging “I hate you!”-moments! But David is new to own, living with his grandmother since his mother suddenly died last year from a freak fall, and his salesman father now works a couple states away. As for Primrose, the only attention sent her way is in the shape of splattered eggs against the walls of the broken-down van she calls “a room of my own” permanently parked outside her neglectful mother’s house. She, too, is missing a parent … a father she never knew although the framed pictures of a dashing movie star make for an odd substitute.
Both kids are lonely and searching, but they’re unwilling to show too much vulnerability. Their veneers are thin – they’re just kids, after all – and their bond grows in spite of their stubborn battles, more reminiscent of siblings’ spats than any real animosity. While David keeps his worried grandmother at emotional arm’s length, Primrose yearns for her fortune-teller mother to just once read her to sleep with a bedtime story. Thank goodness for the occasional guidance of Refrigerator John, a physically challenged neighbor who can fix just about anything, who works hard to keep an eye on the wandering, often lost kids …
While Eggs doesn’t quite have the powerhouse hit of Jerry Spinelli‘s Newbery-winning Maniac Magee, readers will have much to appreciate with this unpredictable, quirky pair – Mango Madness, night crawlers, uneaten carrots, a single malt ball, and much more!
For those of you who might prefer to hear the young ‘uns come to life, the audio version read by Suzanne Toren and Cassandra Morris, and enhanced by a partial ambient soundtrack, is an often delightful, definitely touching experience as David whines, Primrose preaches, David’s grandmother frets, and Primrose’s mother indiscriminately predicts “a long and happy life” even to a pampered pup!
Readers: Middle Grade
Published: 2007