Eddies Luck - Hardcover

Grade 5-8-- Eddie is having a streak of bad luck; no matter what he does, he gets into trouble. He comes home from school one day to find, to his horror, that he must share his bedroom with his 83-year-old grandfather. Pop has had a stroke and is unhappy that he cannot return to his own house. Eddie's initial resentment soon turns to affection as he gets to know the elderly man for the first time. He becomes a reluctant accomplice to Pop's many schemes, including secret visits to the old neighborhood and involvement in a fixed horse race, which is supposed to pay for Pop's care in his own home. The intergenerational relationship works well. However, the needless subplot of Eddie's obsession with contests, culminating in his winning a grand prize of 48 boxes of prunes, does not. Such a lightweight ending is out of place immediately following Pop's sudden death. Stevens also has difficulty dealing with ethnic characters, relying heavily on stereotypes, such as Italians who fix horse races and an Asian woman who greets Pop with a ``velly nice to see you.'' What could have been a powerful book, unfortunately falls short. --George Delalis, Oakland Public Library, CA
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Sixth-grader Eddie Zitelli desperately hopes to survive the end of school with grades and self-esteem intact, but sheer absent- mindedness lands him in the principal's office. Life at home isn't much better, especially after Pop, his ailing grandfather, moves in to share his room. Over the summer, Eddie realizes that Pop plans to gamble both his health and his life savings on an illegal horse race so that he can move back home to live alone again. When Pop leaves to place his bet, Eddie must decide what to do; and though Pop's victory proves fatal, Eddie knows that he's made the right decision and that, through Pop's quest for autonomy, he himself has also become more autonomous. The issues raised by some of Eddie's decision-making (e.g., not telling his parents about a crucial phone call from Pop) merit more thoughtful exploration than they get here; and until the narrative focuses on Eddie and Pop, the characters and plot feel manufactured, while the writing's burdened with forced similes. Still, Stevens does convey the struggle for self in both young and old. Acceptable additional fare. (Fiction. 9-12) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.