SWISSMIST

Dry wit crackles through this intelligent novel about a teen boy’s family troubles. Milo, a loner, aches for his irascible pseudo-philosopher father after his parents’ divorce hurls his life into upheaval. Though he approaches it a great deal more sensitively than his dad, Milo is also driven to find his own way of making sense of the world. This leads him to struggle against his mom at times, as she moves them out of Seattle to a seedy apartment complex and then back to the city again. Though his rebelliousness is uncannily adolescent in spirit, it is appealingly tempered with good humor and a healthy dose of self-knowledge. Following him from fifth through tenth grade, the narrative vividly portrays Milo’s experiences as he begins to understand more about a beloved teacher, contends with additions to his family and ponders the adult world he is rapidly approaching. As the plot meanders to a quietly satisfying close, few will be surprised to find that Milo’s emotional growth has surpassed his father’s. (Fiction. 13 & up)