BEEKMAN’S BIG DEAL

Twelve-year-old New Yorker Beekman O’Day has lived in 14 different homes and attended nine schools. He and Leo, his charming wheeler-dealer of a single dad, keep moving when the going and the finances get tough. Now they’ve landed in a mews apartment with eccentric neighbors, and Beekman’s enrolled in a school he almost likes and where he’s made an enemy and, despite his best efforts, a best friend with a very likable sister. No way does he want to move yet again. He needs to make the biggest deal of his life—to stay put. Will this work out, unlike his father’s usual deals? Readers will turn the pages to find out. Though the ending’s pat, kids won’t care, but they will care about Beekman and Leo, whose relationship is wonderfully close, funny, and real. You could say this story is a big deal. (Fiction. 10+)