ANDREW THE BIG DEAL

by Barbara Brooks Wallace ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1970

Quipping his way through longish, rueful memoirs, Andrew delivers his ""crummy old self"" with a spunk and a fluency that show what a wise kind of guy he is at twelve. ""Other kids must be greased the way they slide around making a buddy,"" but Andrew -- Andrew . . . well . . . (as everyone says) -- is sort of a loser. Not the tiresome, bungling routine sort of shmo, however; more like unlucky. And unappreciated. New to Washington where the Air Force has transferred Dad, Andrew first makes the acquaintance of a bully with an ""oversized behemoth"" of a sidekick, and next meets a locked-out girl who inspires him to play gallant Robin Hood -- which leads indirectly to his borrowing all of Mom's sugar, unloosing the tears that reveal just how rattled she is and precipitate her departure for Aunt Ann's. Andrew has already lost himself in the Pentagon and put his foot in his uncontrollable mouth severally (""I happen to have a crummy mouth that goes up on one side, and sometimes when I'm smiling at someone, it looks like I think they're stupid or something""). So it's no wonder he wonders if he can cope when Mom's gone, Dad's abroad, the housekeeper ruptures her appendix -- and older brother Beege, the big deal in the family, opts out in favor of basketball, girls, and guitar lessons. Leaving Andrew with Migsy, six, and: her birthday party, her fever of 103, her ""where do babies come from, Andrew"" over and over. Later, having held up magnificently, Andrew basks in the blush of universal respect which is poetic for bicycle, brand new, to replace his hand-me-down whose ""dents had dents, for Pete's sake."" Unless the soliloquy style rankles, a boost for sore egos.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1970

ISBN: 0595095712

Page Count: -

Publisher: Follett

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1970

Categories: FICTION