FUR-EVER YOURS, BOOKER JONES

Meet Booker Jones, a bookish and likable young man on a mission: he is determined to become a published science-fiction writer, continuing his quest from the first volume in the series, Utterly Yours, Booker Jones (1995). He works hard at his writing, sending off unintentionally funny proposals to the same New York editor month after month. Booker enjoys his position as the star writer at his school and finds it difficult to deal with his best friend’s new talent for writing hilarious limericks. When Booker’s parents leave for a vacation, Booker and his older sister have to help their frail grandfather, who has descended into depression and stopped eating. Their grandfather, Pop, is a writer, too, with a lifetime of memories preserved in his journal. Pop helps Booker realize that writing is valuable for itself, even if never published. Duffey skillfully integrates Booker’s query letters, a few humorous school writing assignments, and segments from his novels into her text, creating a fast-paced, varied, and often touching story that would make an excellent read-aloud. A fine choice to recommend to determined young writers burning to join the ranks of the published, along with Andrew Clements’s The School Story (p. 582). (Fiction. 10-12)