Freaky Fast Frankie Joe

Freaky Fast Frankie Joe

3.97 of 5 stars 3.97  ·  rating details  ·  119 ratings  ·  50 reviews
Eleven-year-old Frankie Joe Huckaby, forced to live with the father he never knew, a stepmother, and four stepbrothers in Illinois, starts a delivery service to finance his escape back to his mother in Texas, not realizing he is making a better life for himself than he ever had with her.
Hardcover, First, 248 pages
Published April 1st 2012 by Holiday House
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Michelle
I might have actually bought this for my school library if it weren't nominated for Bluebonnet. It's not awful.

Strengths: A very likeable, realistic protagonist.

Weaknesses: Gaping plot holes. Even a child will realize your loving parents won't let you lay in bed for 8 days with no food or water because you're sad. The author's unclear about the differences among bike tires, frequently inventing reasons characters can or can't do something on a bike because of tires which have no basis in realit...more
Teresa Garrett
Frankie Joe's has been sent to live with his father and stepmother following his mother's arrest. Leaving his home and friends behind in Laredo, Texas Frankie Joe moves to Clearview, Illinois with a family he never knew he had including his four brothers: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. His step mom Lizzie works very hard to include him in all aspects of their family including established routines and traditions like: chores, after-school activities and Saturday tutoring. Despite everything Franki...more
Teresa Bateman
Frankie Joe was living in a trailer park in Laredo, Texas when his mother wound up in jail. While she may not have been the most reliable of parents, she was what he was used to. So when the father he never knew before collects him and takes him to a rural town in Illinois to live with him, his wife, and his four sons, Frankie's world is turned upside down. It doesn't help that his new brothers resent him and that he's put back a grade in school. While Frankie's a good kid it's hard fitting into...more
Sharon
5th gr & up
This book made my heart ache a little- in a good way.
Twelve-year old Frankie Joe adores his mother. Sure, his single mom constantly makes bad choices in her quest for a quick buck, she tends to leave him on his own for days on end, and she's not so great at providing the basic necessities, but Frankie Joe knows she loves him and the two of them are meant to take on the world together.
When his mom takes one too many shortcuts in her quest for easy money and ends up in jail for drug...more
Kwinks
Really, it is 4 and 3/4 stars. Yes, it is THAT good. I could not put this down. Everything else had to suffer until I finished. It has been my goal lately to read more realistic fiction featuring male characters and I grabbed this one after reading a review. Oh, boy. This is one of those books in which you, as the reader, just want to reach into the book and give this kid a hug.
I am not going to recap the plot here, but I will add my thoughts. I will not get spoilery.
Frankie Joe is a sympathe...more
PeaceTrain
This turned out to be a very satisfying story about a 12-year-old boy who has to come to terms with big changes in his life. He has been living comfortably with his mother in a trailer park in Texas and has to move to Illinois after his mother has to go to jail for 10 months. The move is difficult for him as everything is unknown, including his father, new step-mother, and four brothers. He struggles with the change, which is compounded by the fact that he is teased and called "freaky."

He opts t...more
Sheila Welch
Frankie Joe is a very appealing character. I found myself rooting for him to make it back to Texas and his mother even while I knew that wasn't likely to happen. Frankie tells his story in first person, present tense, which helps create a feeling of being there with this earnest family as they adjust to a new (temporary, hopes Frankie) member. The oldest half-brother is quite believable, and Frankie's unintentional place as the eldest son creates realistic tension between the two boys. Although...more
Kylie
This one is not the best of 2013's Bluebonnet crop, but certainly not the worst. It has a nice premise, but I couldn't help but blame Frankie Joe's father for letting his sons become such twerps. Even after the sons warm up to Frankie Joe and accept him into the family, I was still left with a feeling of dislike for his family. The conclusion of the story felt rushed. Matt and Frankie Joe become friends seemingly over night- and at the same time, Frankie Joe gets over his mother's abandonment mu...more
Cornmaven
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Christine Turner
Nov 07, 2012 Christine Turner marked it as to-read

In this heart-warming debut novel, resourceful Frankie Joe needs all his incredible resilience and the loving support of his new, blended family to survive a devastating loss.

Twelve-year-old Frankie Joe Huckaby, forced to live with the father he never knew, a stepmother, and four half-brothers in Illinois, starts a delivery service to finance his escape back to his mother in Texas, not realizing he is making a better life for himself than he ever had with her.



Subjects

Stepfamilies -- Juvenile...more
Sandy
I had to read this twice. I always read with "crossed eyes", one looking at is as a young reader and one as an adult. In this case my adult "eye" kept picking up the signals that Frankie Joe was missing, making me feel it was a bit predictable. On the second read I purposely held that knowledge of adult patterns at bay and the story hit right in the pocket for MG readers. In the same way the deep friendships he developed with senior citizens appealed to me as an adult but left me questioning if...more
Warnie B.
Feb 24, 2013 Warnie B. rated it 3 of 5 stars
Recommended to Warnie B. by: Texas Bluebonnet Award Nominee 2013
I enjoyed this one, but felt like I wanted more depth, I suppose. The story is about Frankie Joe having to adjust to a huge move across country to a new place and to a family he didn't know he had (including four obnoxious brothers) after his mom goes to jail. He spends the majority of the book plotting how to run away, back to the trailer park where he and his mom lived in Laredo, though he does finally give some of the folks in his new home a chance. I think, for me, it just felt like things g...more
Ms.Patterson
For such an overdone plot (kid lives with one parent who's a flake, has to go live with the other he doesn't know at all, ends up abandoned by the first, and realizes in the end he's better off with the second), this book still feels really fresh - live the kid, and I love his relationships with adults, lots of good stuff there. What I don't love is the overemphasis on the school/ academic aspects. It just doesn't ring true that teachers would humiliate him in that way, and I feel like that aspe...more
Barb Middleton
Ever bike in 32 degree weather? I have. I thought I was shaking my fist at old man winter. Then I hit a patch of ice, found my body levitating from the ground before gravity took over and slammed me to the pavement. I should have cracked my head on the ice. Or at least knocked the wind out of my lungs, but the padding from my backpack stuffed with clothes, two hats, two scarves, two mittens, two pants, and thick insulated parka cushioned my landing like a mattress. Freaky fast Frankie Joe is muc...more
Shanshad Whelan
I thought this was a very well written and engaging story about a boy who is sent to live with a family he's never met, all the while yearning to escape back to the life he's known with his mother. I do admit that as an adult it was pretty easy to guess what was going to happen to Frankie Joe. The ending was not a surprise, but it was a touching book.

My problem. Maybe someone else can clear this up for me, but I for the life of me cannot decide what the time period in this story is intended to b...more
Betsy
Realistic fiction for kids has more baggage than other fictional genres for that age group. Fantasies and comedies and science fiction get to rely on the extraordinary to weave their tales. Historical fiction, meanwhile, has the nice veil of history in place to aid the writer in making their point. What does realistic fiction have? Reality. Cold, cruel, dead dogs and incurable disease-ridden reality. When people think of middle grade realistic fiction their minds sometimes go to deeply depressin...more
Jodi Lamb
Frankie's mom is put in jail and his dad comes to pick him up and take him "home". He meets his dad for the first time when he gets in the car with him, and doesn't know that he has a stepmother and 4 half brothers until he is half way across the country. He wants more than anything to go back home to Laredo, Texas, knowing that is where his friends are and his mom will be back there in 10 months. Will he find his way home, or is home somewhere that he never expected it to be?
Fplyouth Staff
After mom is put in jail, Frankie Joe must live with estranged father in Illinois who also happens to have a wife and four boys. Frankie Joe has a hard time adjusting to the new family and the new school and yearns to return home to his mother -- but does his mother (once released from prison) feel the same way? Pretty good read, one of my favorites this year. The ending emotional turnaround seems a little underdeveloped but the story and character itself was good.
Leigh
What an ironic choice to finish on Mother's Day of all days. The mother in this book is the Original Lazy Maisy who breaks her sons heart with her thoughtless, scatter brained, selfish behavior. She is also the most interesting character in the book. I was puzzled by the character of Matt, who started out selfish and ambitious, but ended up being nice. Seemed inconsistent to me. Anyway, it's a good book with very well drawn characters and an interesting plot.
Ms. Foley
This is a good realistic fiction story about family. It's very character centered and I liked how the family wasn't perfect. Usually you have an evil stepmother in stories, but Frankie's stepmother is really kind, so that was a nice change of pace. This is one of the 2013-2014 Bluebonnet books and it's the first of the chapter books that I've read. Between this and the 3 picture books we're off to a good start for the Bluebonnet list!
Sharon
Frankie Joe is a character that has had a hard life. His mother is in jail and he has to leave his life in a trailer part to live with the father who he has never met. To make things more challenging, he now has four half brothers and is living in a suburban area in Wisconsin. Frankie's obstacles and the people he meets make this an interesting and touching read. I truly enjoyed it and think it is an excellent book for kids.
Mary
Engaging from the first sentence, "I don't like the way the neighbors look at me when I walk by." When Frankie's mother goes to jail, Frankie goes to live with his father who he's never met and already has a family including four sons. Fabulous pacing, plot and characters, but I got lost on the very last page and did not get the symbolism or whatever the author was trying for; and I can't imagine young readers feeling satisfied.
Joshua
Frankie Joe's mom has to go to jail for ten months, but Frankie Joe's sentence might be even worse: he's got to spend the time with his dad's family in Illinois farm country. It's a well-rendered outsider story, with quite believable sibling dynamics, and Clifton really has you rooting for the kid. I've got a gripe with publisher Holiday House, though: how did that many typos get by?
Caisa
enjoyed this author's first book.
realistic - After Frankie Joe's mom who is always chasing rainbows, ends up in jail, he has to move from Texas to Illinois to live with his father and four half-brothers he didn't know existed.
not compelling, but nice book and thought almost all of the characters were well done. Recommend to others who enjoy children's books.
Sharon P. Lynn
This is another I was reading as a possible gift, and I found it well-written and surprising. The young protagonist is uprooted from his home in Texas and transplanted to a tiny town in northern Illinois when his mother is sent to jail. How he handles the challenges he faces is the heart of this story. I plan to give it to a 10- and an 11-year-old.
Bethe
Spring break bookaday #7. 2013-14 Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee. Love the Texas connection to this book and I personally connected to the Midwestern setting. I didn't like the teachers' preconceived notions about Frankie Joe however. This book has boy potential. Almost finished the book until I noticed that the Nova beauty products is Avon spelled backwards :)
Happy Hedgehog
I almost didn't read read this at first-in fact, I didn't check it out the first time that I saw it at the library. I really liked this book, don't be fooled by its cover or title. It was sad in some parts, but I think that just adds to how much I liked it, it was just put together really well.
Laura
Frankie joe is going to live with his father and his family -- temporarily. While his mom is in jail. Frankie joe learns about responsibility, disappointment but he also learns about lbeing part of a family. Excellent book. I believe this is a Bluebonnrt nominee. Great choice.
Elizabeth
A good story dealing with themes of single parenthood, split parenting, half siblings, personal worth, etc. Some deeper issues dealt with superficially, but a pleasant read without being trite. Biking, making money, math, catching up educationally/being behind, name calling, etc
Deb Kendall
The story flowed well. The conflicts were relatable to elementary and middle school students. It has a positive message, being true to yourself, creativity in solving problems, openness to opportunities. It was a quick read, very enjoyable. It would make a good read aloud.
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