My Brother's Keeper

Toby Malone used to have a terrific brother. The old Jake-- the one who was MVP of the high-school baseball team, the who played with Toby and their little brother Eli , the one was easy to talk to — would never call Toby "dillweed" in front of his friends, or quit baseball, or steal, or get high.

But since their dad left, Jake's become "cool and uninterested in things he considers immature," which seems to be everything that matters to Toby. Toby, in an effort to protect his mother, knows it's up to him to cover for Jake, but the longer he does, the worse Jake becomes, until a dangerous series of events forces the family to confront their long-ignored problems.

McCormick's latest offering, is a sensitve portryal of a loving family struggling with rebuilding after a massive upheaval.

Toby's first-person present-tense voice, with its abuundance of punchy fragmentary sentences coupled with breathless run-ons, captures the slightly scattered, exaggerated thoughts of a perennial worrier who is also quite funny.

Toby is entirely convincing as a thirteen-year-old, from his sensitivity to the unspoken code of body language between guys, to his fear and elation at his crush on a girl, to his well-intentioned but misguided efforts to help his mother.

McCormick has a knack for balancing humor and pathos and for crafting a nuanced family where not everything has to be said to be understood. Readers who already know that the most meaningful moments are often hidden in the little ones will appreciate this compelling and compassionate story. The Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books

To learn more about this book, or to hear an audio excerpt visit Hyperion Books For Children.com

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