Synopses & Reviews
After getting in trouble at his previous school in suburban Blue Hills, Pennsylvania, thirteen-year-old Ethan Oppenheimer is sent to live with grandparents he hardly knows in urban Washington, D.C. Although he had lots of friends at his old school, Ethan finds it hard to fit in at Parker Junior High. The only white, Jewish student in a school of African Americans and Hispanics, he endures teasing and harassment and has no one to sit with in the lunchroom, even if his crazy grandparents didnt pack him weird old-people food in wrinkled plastic bags for his lunches.
But as the semester moves on, Ethan gets involved in jazz band and makes some new friends, learning a lot about prejudice and acceptance -- and about himself and where he really fits in the world.
Synopsis
After getting suspended from school, Ethan Oppenheimer is uprooted from his comfortable suburban life in Pennsylvania and sent to live in Washington, D.C., with grandparents he hardly knows. At Parker Junior High, he stands out as the only white student. Making friends there is difficult; fitting in, impossible. It doesn't help that his overprotective grandparents expect him to live their old-fashioned, frugal lifestyle. / As he tries to find his way in this new world, Ethan also struggles with issues from the world he left behind guilt about the events surrounding his suspension, anxiety about his parents' separation, loneliness for the company of his family and friends. / Slowly, Ethan adjusts. He makes a few friends; he joins the jazz band and learns a new instrument; he even gets used to dried-out dinners at 4:30 pm. Along the way he learns a lot about prejudice and acceptance and about himself and his changing family situation.
Synopsis
After a school suspension and his parents' separation, Ethan is sent to live with his grandparents in Washington, D.C., which is worlds apart from his home in a Philadelphia suburb.