Jump Cut

September 1, 2012
Grandfather's will sends a 17-year-old boy on a zany adventure. Unlike his brother and male cousins, Spencer is not athletic or adventurous. Instead, he's rather timid, a watcher rather than a doer. That all changes after the reading of his grandfather's remarkable will, which sends Spencer on a quest to find and get a kiss on the cheek from an aging B-movie actress named Gloria Lorraine. Turns out that Gloria has a larger-than-life theatrical personality, a bulldozer-strong will and an agenda of her own. In the sometimes hard-to-get-a-grip-on madcap adventure that follows, Spencer and Gloria pick up Gloria's granddaughter, AmberLea (who is under house arrest), and discover that the thumping coming from the back of their "borrowed" Cadillac is being caused by an armed thug and cannoli baker who is tied up in the trunk. In the course of the story, Spencer tangles with Mafia toughs and motorcycle gang members, finding maturity, smarts and personal strength in the process. Like much of the novel, the wingding climax is funny, inventive and hard to follow. The author makes some inexplicable choices affecting reader comprehension. For example, do the two men in Gloria's young life really need to be named Danny and Davey? Muddled but entertaining story with a heart of gold. (Fiction. 10-14)

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January 1, 2013

Gr 6-9-In Staunton's plot-driven hi/lo story, readers travel with Spencer as he fulfills his grandfather's last wish that the teen get a kiss from the old man's all-time favorite movie star and film it. When he arrives at a nursing home, Gloria Lorraine drags him on a harrowing road trip that involves mobsters and white powder. The action moves fast, and although Spencer is a sweet kid, there is little character development; readers may have a hard time caring about him and his adventures. Some of the story is told in screenplay, some in prose. Ink Me picks up where Jump Cut leaves off, told from Spencer's younger brother's point of view. Grandpa's dying wish was for Bunny to get a tattoo. It has a gang affiliation, and Bunny ends up running from the police after they think he is selling guns. He is eventually arrested and finds out that his tattoo was meant for someone else. When writing a book for students who have a hard time reading, it's not a good strategy for authors to pretend they can't spell or use correct grammar: "I walkd past places that fixd cars and places that sold candy and places that I don't know what they did and places that dint do any thing cuz of the bords in the windo." Because the writing is so distracting, this book can't be recommended for anyone.-Pamela Schembri, Newburgh Enlarged City Schools, NY

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