Since his parents split when he was five, 13-year-old Josh Greenwood is accustomed to dividing his time between Boston with his orderly mother and Chicago vacations with his forgetful, shoe-salesman father. When Josh’s grandmother in Florida takes a fall, however, Josh’s mother sends him to Chicago where he’ll have to start his seventh-grade year at a new school. Josh arrives to find the shoe store where his dad worked has closed, and his dad looking...Elvis-y. Josh can handle his dad’s possible girlfriend Viv and her over-friendly and rather strange daughter Ivory, but he can’t take everyone knowing about his dad’s new “job.” School starts, and to Josh’s horror Viv signs his dad up to impersonate Elvis at his school’s ’50s theme day. Pearsall’s fourth is funny, realistic and slightly sarcastic, and the eventual changes in Josh’s relationship with his dad are both believable and well-handled. Boys especially will identify with Josh’s struggle to escape the stigma of an embarrassing parent. (Fiction. 9-13)
