In this thoughtfully crafted story, an engaging, overly analytical Irish boy learns the importance of family and friendship. Eleven-year-old Jake is a walking encyclopedia. Next to football and fish, thinking and talking are his favorite things. Jake is so self-absorbed he fails to notice his mother is pregnant. After his baby sister Daisy arrives he feigns indifference, especially when his mother and stepfather seem completely besotted with their little “miracle.” Then Jake meets Stella, an eccentric girl in pink ballet slippers obsessed with collecting beautiful words, and Mrs. Kennedy, Stella’s perceptive, equally eccentric elderly neighbor. In their own ways, Stella and Mrs. Kennedy befriend the confused and marginalized Jake. Jake becomes a local hero when he rescues a drowning child, but later blames himself when he is unable to save Stella’s youngest sister from a terrible accident. Eventually baby Daisy, Mrs. Kennedy and Jake’s kindly stepfather help him see he “might just be very important,” but not in the way he thinks. Told with humor and insight, Jake’s story should appeal particularly to quiet, sensitive kids. (Fiction. 8-12)
