The Pull of Gravity

Gr 7—9—In this charming but uneven chronicle of a teen in his watershed autumn, Nick Gardner's claims to fame include having a dad, email moniker FatMan2, who decides to move his 395-pound body on foot the 196 miles back to his beloved Manhattan. The out-of-work newspaperman sets out to change his life, but Nick doesn't open the emails that chart his progress, unbalancing readers, who do see the messages. His next-door friend Scooter suffers from a rare syndrome that dooms him to look like "a shrunken old man" and cuts life short. Nick shares a love for Star Wars movies with the Scoot, but now that he's heading toward 15, there's less time for hanging with his frail childhood buddy, and after a stroke, Scooter has even less time. Enter Jaycee Amato, the bizarre yet beguiling friend of Scooter who presents Nick with a quest at the request of the dying teen—the two of them will track down the father who abandoned Scooter and his mom more than a decade ago to deliver a letter and a valuable signed first edition of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. When the two set out to try to make it happen for the Scoot, Nick instead finds Scooter's mother—and his own transforming father with her. This infidelity plot strand dangles a bit, but many teens will gloss over it to focus on the fact that bus road trips allow plenty of kissing practice time. Characters feel real, though unresolved, and the plot zips along, championing strength in adversity.—Suzanne Gordon, Lanier High School, Sugar Hill, GA