Synopses & Reviews
If there's one thing I've learned from comic books, it's that everybody has a weaknesssomething that can totally ruin their day without fail.
For the wolfman it's a silver bullet. For Superman it's Kryptonite. For me it was a letter.
With one letter, my dad was sent back to Afghanistan to fly Apache helicopters for the U.S. army.
Now all I have are his letters. Ninety-one of them to be exact. I keep them in his old plastic lunchboxthe one with the cool black car on it that says Knight Rider underneath. Apart from my comic books, Dad's letters are the only things I read more than once. I know which ones to read when I'm down and need a pick-me-up. I know which ones will make me feel like I can conquer the world. I also know exactly where to go when I forget Mom's birthday. No matter what, each letter always says exactly what I need to hear. But what I want to hear the most is that my dad is coming home.
Review
Praise for THE SATURDAY BOY by David Fleming:
“The Saturday Boy is funny and poignant, sometimes at the same time, the way life is.” —Sara Pennypacker, New York Times Bestselling author of the Clementine series and Summer of the Gypsy Moths “Fleming reminds us of the immeasurable value of a handwritten letter, how this tangible connection becomes something we can hang on to, for as long as we need it.” —Suzanne LaFleur, author of Love, Aubrey and Eight Keys
"Fleming wields a light touch with the storys pacing and a steady hand for hard reality in this tender portrait of a boy under stress." —Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
In Caitlin’s world, everything is black or white. Things are good or bad. Anything in between is confusing. That’s the stuff Caitlin’s older brother, Devon, has always explained. But now Devon’s dead and Dad is no help at all. Caitlin wants to get over it, but as an eleven-year-old girl with Asperger’s, she doesn’t know how. When she reads the definition of closure, she realizes that is what she needs. In her search for it, Caitlin discovers that not everything is black and white—the world is full of colors—messy and beautiful.
Kathryn Erskine has written a must-read gem, one of the most moving novels of the year.
A Discussion Guide to Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine
Read Kathryn Erskine's post on the Penguin Blog.
About the Author
Kathryn Erskine spent many years as a lawyer before realizing that she’d rather write things that people might actually enjoy reading. She grew up mostly overseas and attended eight different schools, her favorite being the Hogwarts-type castle in Scotland. The faculty, of course, did not consist of wizards, although . . . how did the headmistress know that it was “the wee redhead” who led the campaign to free the mice from the biology lab? Erskine draws on her childhood—and her second childhood through her children—for her stories. She still loves to travel but nowadays most trips tend to be local, such as basketball and tennis courts, occasional emergency room visits, and the natural food store for very healthy organic chocolate with “life saving” flavonoids.