Freaky Fast Frankie Joe

by Lutricia Clifton

Overview

Twelve-year-old Frankie Joe Huckaby can't find anything good to say about Clearview, Illinois, where he must spend the next ten months living with a father he knows only through birthday cards, a stepmother he didn't know existed, and four half brothers intent on making him the "freak" of the town. When life in Clearview becomes unbearable, Frankie Joe hatches a plan to ride his bike back to the Lone Star Trailer Park in Laredo, Texas. For that he needs money, and so he opens Frankie Joe's Freaky Fast Delivery Service. But Frankie Joe hasn't counted on quirky clients, unpredictable winter weather, and his equally unpredictable new family.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823428670
Publisher:	Holiday House
Publication date:	01/01/2013
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	344,655
Product dimensions:	5.43(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.68(d)
Lexile:	600L (what's this?)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Lutricia Clifton was born in Oklahoma but moved frequently when she was growing up. She married and raised two sons in Colorado, where she earned a BA and an MA in English from Colorado State University. She now lives in northern Illinois, the setting of Freaky Fast Frankie Joe, her first book.

Editorial Reviews

* "Readers, like the town folk and his newfound family, will be rooting for Frankie Joe. The final scenes soar with hope."—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
 
"Frankie Joe is an appealing, resilient character who, in spite of his resentment and anger, possesses an easygoing determination to not only survive but to do so with humor and dignity."—The Horn Book
 
"Readers who enjoy graceful, understated humor in their realistic fiction should find this right up their alley"—Booklist
 
"tugs at readers' heartstrings. . . . children in blended families, including reluctant readers, will relate to this story."—School Library Journal
 
Nominated to the Texas Bluebonnet Master List
A Mark Twain Award Nominee
Nominated to the Florida Sunshine State List
A Golden Sower Award Nominee Nominated for the Sequoyah Book Award
A Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year
Nominated for the William Allen White Children's Book Award

From the Publisher

Gr 4–6—With his mom in jail for drug possession, Frankie Joe goes to live in Illinois with his father, whom he barely remembers, and his father's new wife and four sons. None of the boys is happy with this arrangement. To make matters worse, the 12-year-old is placed in fourth grade instead of sixth because he missed too much school the previous year. Eager to escape from this life, Frankie Joe starts a bicycle delivery business to try to save enough money to return to his friends in his Texas trailer park. When his mother gets out of jail and agrees to let his new family adopt him, Frankie Joe has to rethink his plans and come to grips with the fact that she has another life and doesn't want him with her. Definitions of words the protagonist looks up to educate himself are interspersed throughout this first novel that tugs at readers' heartstrings. Although Frankie Joe's amazing adaptation to a stable environment is almost too good to be true, children in blended families, including reluctant readers, will relate to this story.—Kathy Lyday, William Lenoir Middle School, Lenoir, NC

School Library Journal

While his mom is in jail, Frankie Joe tries to adjust to living with his newly surfaced father, FJ, his stepmother and "the four legitimate Huckaby sons." The brothers tease Frankie Joe because, academically, he is "freaky slow," which is at odds with how fast he is when he runs or bikes. The tension and the cast of characters are well-developed, especially Frankie Joe, who is believably resistant to the new setting and the rules of the house. Speaking in the first-person, Frankie Joe shows spunk, spinning the taunt into a positive when he launches Frankie Joe's Freaky Fast Delivery Service. With his income, he plans his escape back home from Illinois to Texas. But with each day Frankie Joe becomes more integrated into--and essential to--the town and the family, starting with his friendship with another town oddball, elderly Miss Peachcott. She tells Frankie Joe his family history. With this reveal, the author realistically depicts Frankie Joe's growing doubts about his mother's decisions. His mother's final act, abandoning him to FJ, leaves Frankie Joe grief-stricken and depressed but he now has a new understanding of what responsibility and home mean. The pace in this debut is leisurely, but readers, like the town folk and his newfound family, will be rooting for Frankie Joe. The final scenes soar with hope. (Fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews