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The Pull of Gravity

by Gae Polisner (Goodreads Author)

3.95 of 5 stars 3.95 · rating details · 418 ratings · 127 reviews

While Nick Gardner’s family is falling apart, his best friend, Scooter, is dying from a freak disease. The Scoot’s final wish is thatNick and theirquirky classmate, Jaycee Amato, deliver a prized first-edition copy of Of Mice and Men to the Scoot’s father. There’s just one problem: the Scoot’s father walked out years ago and hasn’t been heard from since. So, guided by Stei...more

Hardcover, 202 pages

Published May 10th 2011 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

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Class of 2k11

7th out of 49 books — 147 voters

2011 Debut Authors (Young Adult and Middle Grade Lit.)

118th out of 306 books — 2,031 voters

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Feb 02, 2011 Sarah (YA Love) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-debut-author-challenge, read-in-2010, young-adult-lit, book-club-high-school, contemporary-ya, middle-grade, favorites, realistic-fiction

The Pull of Gravity is sweet, honest and touching. It has moments that will make you laugh out loud and even become teary. Those teaching Of Mice and Men will want to read this and add it to their library, if not their curriculum. John Steinbeck’s novel isn’t part of our curriculum in my district, but I will be including The Pull of Gravity in my classroom library.

My favorite character is the unique and completely honest Jaycee Amato. Her witty dialogue and comebacks with Nick had me giggling m...more The Pull of Gravity is sweet, honest and touching. It has moments that will make you laugh out loud and even become teary. Those teaching Of Mice and Men will want to read this and add it to their library, if not their curriculum. John Steinbeck’s novel isn’t part of our curriculum in my district, but I will be including The Pull of Gravity in my classroom library.

My favorite character is the unique and completely honest Jaycee Amato. Her witty dialogue and comebacks with Nick had me giggling multiple times throughout the book. She’s the one that introduces Nick to Of Mice and Men by reading it to him as they head out on their journey to fulfill the request of The Scoot, their dying friend. They’re looking for Scoot’s father (without telling their parents), and the chances of finding him are slim, but Jaycee is prepared and optimistic. You’ve gotta love a girl who can plan an entire secret trip and stay optimistic while doing so. :)

The trip itself is fun to read because so many aspects of the story unravel and come together there. Besides Nick and Jaycee looking for Scoot’s dad, we watch Nick take chances (on love and his family) and become more independent. And even though Scoot isn’t on this journey with him, we get to find out more about his life and character. Plus, there’s all of his great Yoda and Star Wars references. Steinbeck and Yoda together?! AWESOME! If you’ve read John Green’s Paper Towns (I’m thinking of Quentin’s journey to find Margo), you’re sure to enjoy The Pull of Gravity.

A great element to the story are the emails Nick receives from his dad. Nick and his dad lack a strong relationship because his dad has pretty much checked out as a father. The emails appear in between some chapters and give us insight that we otherwise wouldn’t have. We know why Nick is upset with his dad, but I wish these feelings were more developed before we read the emails. I also wish we could have read more of his emails simply because they’re a cool element to the story.

I definitely recommend reading this. Girls will enjoy the relationship between Jaycee and Nick. Boys will love the Star Wars references and will easily relate to Nick. Teachers and librarians will, of course enjoy the story, but will also appreciate the ties to Of Mice and Men and Gae’s wonderful writing! Congrats on your debut, Gae, and I eagerly look forward to more of your books!

P.S. Don’t you just LOVE the final cover?! (If it doesn't show up here soon, check out my blog to see it http://addicted2reading.wordpress.com... )(less)

4 likes · like · see review

Apr 12, 2011 Mindy/fangedmom rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc-sent-via-publisher-author-4-rev, author-sent-for-review

My Review:
I fell in love with these characters. When I first read about this book, I knew I wanted to read it. With a best friend dying & being asked to fulfill his one dying wish, I could only imagine what adventures would transpire for our character Nick. BOY was I in for an eye opening read. Nick's life seems to be crumbling all around him. Parent issues, growing up, an illness that he suffers from and just life in general is testing every bit of strength he has.

This book did not follow...more

3 likes · like · see review

Jan 18, 2013 Christi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya

Review from my blog: http://christitheteenlibrarian.blogsp...

I first heard of this book at a Booklist webinar, where several publishers were promoting their favorite upcoming YA titles. I requested and received an ARC; in the meantime, I used this title for my Waiting on Wednesday for that week. Gae Polisner saw my WOW (squee!), and commented how happy she was to see her book on my blog.

I'm very happy to report that I loved this book. It is, as Gae mentioned in an email, a "quiet" book (compare...more Review from my blog: http://christitheteenlibrarian.blogsp...

I first heard of this book at a Booklist webinar, where several publishers were promoting their favorite upcoming YA titles. I requested and received an ARC; in the meantime, I used this title for my Waiting on Wednesday for that week. Gae Polisner saw my WOW (squee!), and commented how happy she was to see her book on my blog.

I'm very happy to report that I loved this book. It is, as Gae mentioned in an email, a "quiet" book (compared with paranormal fiction, at any rate), but it's a strong storyline with incredible characters. Our narrator, Nick, is just your average kid--he's not extraordinarily handsome or athletic--in other words, he's pretty much just like most of us. His family life isn't great--there's nothing earth-shatteringly bad about it, it's just not spectacular (again, like most of our families). Mom works harder than she should have to, because Dad, a former journalist, has gained an obscene amount of weight and literally sits on the couch all day. Nick's older brother, Jeremy, is just like most older bros--most of the time he can't stand Nick, but once in a while (when it really counts), he steps up.

What makes Nick special is his friendship with Scooter, who was born with a form of progeria, which causes rapid aging in young children. So basically the Scoot is a teenager with the body of an old man. And because there's no treatment or cure for progeria, and because he ages so quickly, he will die way sooner than he should. The Scoot is a remarkable character. His level of maturity is one not often seen in adults, let alone young teens. He regards his pending death with a quiet dignity not often seen anywhere.

Jaycee rounds out this little group. She's the stepdaughter of a local news personality, and meets Nick when Stepdad interviews the family. Nick's dad makes a decision to emulate a man who gained some fame walking from CA to NY, and this causes the family to gain a bit of popularity. (Based on truth: http://www.thefatmanwalking.com/)

Although the only commonality Nick and Jaycee appear to share is Scoot's friendship, they decide to honor his last wish and head out to try and find Scoot's dad. And of course, as is true of almost all road trip stories, Nick learns a lot about himself, Scooter, Jaycee, and even his family while searching for Scooter's dad.

Jaycee is a fun character, using Slinkys and Trolls are accessories to her outfits. She was just slightly quirky, and reminded me a little bit of Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl. She's a strong character who knows what she wants, and almost always knows how to go about getting it. And, if she doesn't know, she'll either fake it, or ask for help. I love to see characters who aren't afraid to ask for help--that's realism.

There are a lot of references to Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men (the book Nick and Jaycee are attempting to deliver), and it's been soooo long since I've read it that I can barely remember it. All the references are explained pretty well, though. Fans of contemporary fiction will enjoy this novel. It's not a tear-jerker (at least it wasn't for me), but it does tug at the heartstrings, and you will care deeply about these characters by the end of the story.(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Feb 13, 2011 AnQi rated it 2 of 5 stars

REVIEW FOR THE PULL OF GRAVITY

The Pull of Gravity was a short, sweet, and juvenile realistic novel, set in the present day where our main character Nick is set on granting his dying friend Scooter’s final wish. Along with a friend named Jaycee Amato, their mission is to send a thousand dollar copy of Mice and Men back to his father, who walked out on Scooter and his mother just a few days after he was born. Nick, who has his own conflicts with his father- (his dad is described as huge in the beg...more

3 likes · like · see review

Jul 23, 2011 Margaret rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: level-ya, realistic-fiction

6/16/11 ** Day 19, Book 28 ** Nick and Scoot are best friends (though Nick is a little embarrassed about this friendship); Scoot and Jaycee are friends (unbeknownst to Nick). Scoot is dying, Nick's father has left home, and Jaycee has decided that Nick needs to help her make a dying wish of Scoot's come true.

This poignant tale weaves together threads from the characters' lives with quotes and themes from various Star Wars movies and Of Mice & Men, creating a tapestry that inexorably pulls y...more

4 likes · like · see review

Nov 14, 2011 Michele(mluker) Luker rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What an incredible story!!

A Must read!!

I was so intrigued to read this story. Just from the synopsis above, I just had to read it to see if Nick and Jaycee find The Scoot’s dad.

The story starts off with Nick telling about is fevers, hallucinations, and family life. His family moved from Manhattan, and it seems since then, things have been falling apart. His best friend, The Scoot, has a serious disease called Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome. A very rare disease that makes him age faster th...more

1 like · like · see review

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Michele(mluker) Luker I was so intrigued to read this story. Just from the synopsis above, I just had to read it to see if Nick and Jaycee find The Scoot’s dad.

The story s...more
Nov 14, 2011 09:12am

Gae Polisner it was good enough for me! :)
Nov 15, 2011 05:57am

Mar 13, 2012 Hannah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Review originally posted at Books Worth Remembering

I received this book as a Christmas present from my sister, she chose it because of the reference to John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, for I’m a lover of his work and that book. The book starts with two quotes (Quotes are kind of my obsession so I was immediately intrigued) and I was surprised to find one from Of Mice and Men and than one from Yoda – these seemed like polar opposites but are interwoven very cleverly throughout the book.

The rela...more Review originally posted at Books Worth Remembering

I received this book as a Christmas present from my sister, she chose it because of the reference to John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, for I’m a lover of his work and that book. The book starts with two quotes (Quotes are kind of my obsession so I was immediately intrigued) and I was surprised to find one from Of Mice and Men and than one from Yoda – these seemed like polar opposites but are interwoven very cleverly throughout the book.

The relationship with Nick and Jaycee was different; most often it always seems to be the girl who is unsure of herself where the boy is the one with the confidence. It was nice to see this turned on its head a bit for where Nick was hesitant and uncertain as to what to do Jaycee was more self – assured and certainly more outwardly confident. Jaycee was the driving force behind going on the crazy adventure with an outcome they weren’t sure of. I loved the boldness of Jaycee with her individualism – slinky bracelets and troll necklaces made her stand out; something I personally wouldn’t be brave enough to do. With all of this the pair seemed to balance one another out which made for interesting dynamic.

As for the adventure I was initially disappointed – I’m all for road trips and stories of epic journeys so when they only travelled on a bus to get to try and find Scooter’s Dad I was thinking that that was too easy. But as I finished the book I realised that that made the book more believable but more importantly it wasn’t about travelling great distances but more a journey of self discovery or at least growing in some ways which was nice to read; Especially Nick’s development it seemed like at the end he was finally comfortable in his own skin.

One person I wished I could’ve found about more of was Scooter – he was the reason Nick and Jaycee go on this journey and to me he seems kind of an enigma but what he wanted was for the two to go on this journey so I guess that’s why he appears that way. Also I was slightly saddened by the fact that the protagonist Nick didn’t love the book (that’s mainly the fan – girl in me) but was glad that Jaycee did. Despite that it was good to see that as Nick read the book he gained something from it.

Personally I found ‘The Pull of Gravity’ to be one of those books that you need to take a step back on and think about and that the story doesn’t really hit home until later. But when it hits you get this great sense of catharsis and it makes you see that it isn’t how far you travel but what you learn on the way. And most importantly even the best laid plans go oft awry or as Nick would say ‘Gang aft gengly’(less)

1 like · like · see review

Aug 17, 2011 Precious rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Originally posted at Fragments of Life.

The Pull of Gravity took me by surprise. I wanted to read it because I sensed that it was a good contemporary. These past few months, I found myself relishing contemporaries. From the first paragraph, I was hooked. The book itself had a different kind of flavor. It was quirky, believable and intriguing. The narrator’s voice was one of the things that really pulled me in. I loved how the story was told. It was easy to go with its flow, to succumb and let mys...more

1 like · like · see review

Jun 05, 2011 Heather rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: realistic, romance

Nick's world seems to be falling apart: his best friend Scooter is dying, his fat dad has just left the family on a walking quest to New York, his brother couldn't care less about him, and he just broke his leg during one of his fever induced hallucinations. But along comes Jaycee... Who takes Nick on a quest to find Scooter's dad - as a promise to Scooter.
Riddled with Steinbeck and Yoda references, we embark on this quest with Nick to find out even the best laid plans can go awry, but there's...more

1 like · like · see review

May 13, 2011 Kelly rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya-fiction, read-in-2011

Of Mice and Men is one of my favorite books, although it has been a while since I've revisited it. I liked what Polisner did here a lot, and the voice in the story was excellent. Very Northrop-esque. Can I possibly coin that term?

Full review here: http://stackedbooks.blogspot.com/2011...

1 like · like · see review

Apr 06, 2013 Sally Kruger added it · review of another edition

I'll be honest, I was attracted to this one by the cover. The blurb on the back also promised a "freak disease", a "quirky girl", and a connection to Of Mice and Men, that sealed the deal. I quickly added it to the shopping cart and decided it would be at the top of the TBR pile.

Nick Gardner's best friend is dying. The Scoot has actually been dying since the day he was born with the rare disease called progeria syndrome which causes accelerated aging. Even though the Scoot has made it clear he i...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jan 27, 2013 Lindsey Kay rated it 5 of 5 stars

Oh, this book. This book. I get bored with YA Fiction after a while because so much of it is so heavy. I get the heaviness. I do. Kids these days live in a cold, hard world that demands so much of them and they have to make difficult choices before they are ready or informed enough to understand how those choices will affect their future. Of course they want to read books about kids that have even harder lives and make even worse choices, it gives them perspective.

But every once in a while, isn'...more

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Dec 04, 2012 Ed added it

Polisner, G. (2011). The pull of gravity. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux/Frances Foster Books. 202 pp. ISBN 978-0-374-37193-7. (Hardcover); $16.99.*

I love a great opening: “A fever was what started everything. That, and the water tower, and the cherry cola. Well, also, Dad and his condition, and Mom being in Philadelphia and all.” Nick knows how to spike a fever. Febrile seizures are no stranger. And Nick has it far better than his friend The Scoot who is dying of Hutchinson-Gilford prog...more

1 like · like · see review

Oct 23, 2011 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: life, ya, not-graphic

How do you respond when things fall apart? Do you avoid everything and hide away inside yourself? Rage and lash out? Immerse yourself in activity so you don't have to think about it?

Nick retreats into apathy. Or wants to, at least, and would if it weren't for Jaycee pestering him into a quest of sorts. They are both high school freshmen and have recently met through mutual acquaintance Scoot. Nick and Scoot were best friends growing up, but Nick started pulling away when Scoot started the long,...more

1 like · like · see review

Oct 08, 2011 Barbara rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ncbla

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Things are falling apart for fourteen-year-old Nick Gardner. His extremely obese father has decided to leave the family and walk to New York. His best friend Scooter is fading fast as the results of progeria, a disease that makes his body age rapidly. He feels distanced from his older brother, and guilty for not spending enough time with his friend. When Scooter dies, Nick and Jaycee Amato, another friend Scooter has made, keep a promise to find Scooter's long-gone father. They embark on a trip...more

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Aug 04, 2011 Kelly Hager rated it 5 of 5 stars

Nick's dad has decided to leave the family and walk to Manhattan. His brother's leaving for college soon. His mom's sort of checked out (it's not that she doesn't care; it's more that she's kind of busy just now). His friend the Scoot is dying. It's not really a good time. And then he meets this girl (the Scoot's other friend, Jaycee) and she has a quest for him. Find the Scoot's dad, tell him about what's going on with his son and give him this copy of Of Mice and Men. (It's really rare and wor...more

1 like · like · see review

Jul 03, 2011 Becca rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya

The Pull of Gravity gets its title from a line Yoda speaks in Episode II -- "Go to the center of the gravity's pull, and find your planet you will." And I think, by the end of the book, Nick is beginning to find his planet as his naivete is stripped away and he faces some hard life changes. But none of us have control over gravity and we can't really journey to the center of its pull voluntarily; it grabs us and drags us down. Nick finds this out soon enough as he is pulled apart by circumstance...more

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Jun 08, 2011 Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Go to the center of the gravity's pull, and find your planet you will." Yoda, Episode II. This line is quoted towards the end of the book, as one boy explains his thoughts to another. The boys are Nick, nearly 15 and bedeviled by high school (he's a freshman), his Dad's problems, and his friend's illness; and Scooter, Nick's best friend, who is dying. If the boys' relationship reminded me a bit of the boys in "Freak the Mighty", that is no bad thing.

Nick is a very believable young teen, sensiti...more

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Jun 04, 2011 Suzanne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: peach-consideration, for-slj

My first draft SLJ review might have been too complimentary because I was asked to revise and indicate that the plot did indeed have some holes, particularly with regard to the main character's father, but ultimately, I'm not sure most teen readers come away from a reading experience wondering what happened to the adult characters. Am I prejudiced in thinking that their concern for fictional characters is unlikely to extend to those over 30?

Nick Gardner's father is famous, infamous?, for attemp...more

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Feb 13, 2011 Becky rated it 5 of 5 stars

• Reading level: Young Adult
• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) (May 10, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374371938
• ISBN-13: 978-0374371937

Ah, at last a book with many of my favorite things all mixed up. But, what do you get when you mix troll dolls, Slinkies, John Steinbeck, and Yoda? From past experience, I can tell you some of my best laid culinary plans have gone wildly astray. Take for example, the peach, date, banana ice cream my Aunt Jeanne and I whipped...more

3 likes · like · see review

Jun 24, 2011 Meagan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, ya

This seems to me like the kind of book that's going to appeal more to adults and older teens than to the audience I suspect it's meant for. I'll tell you what I mean: First of all, Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men plays a relatively important role. A great book, but not one I typically see teens lining up to read, discuss, or gush over. And it's not like the author did enough with it here to create an interest. Also, I wonder about the age of the characters. The boy on the cover looks about like I wo...more

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Jan 09, 2012 Sarah B. rated it 4 of 5 stars

"The Pull of Gravity" by Gae Polisner.

This book is about a 14 year old kid named nick who's dream is to be able to do stuff with his dad but his dad is too lazy and fat to do anything. His dad lets him sleep all day and if the phone rings he sleeps so heavily he doesn't hear it and it causes chaos in the house between Nick's mom and dad. He goes to school and doesn't really have many friends but he meets this girl in the hallway after getting tripped down the stairs and pulling her with him. He...more "The Pull of Gravity" by Gae Polisner.

This book is about a 14 year old kid named nick who's dream is to be able to do stuff with his dad but his dad is too lazy and fat to do anything. His dad lets him sleep all day and if the phone rings he sleeps so heavily he doesn't hear it and it causes chaos in the house between Nick's mom and dad. He goes to school and doesn't really have many friends but he meets this girl in the hallway after getting tripped down the stairs and pulling her with him. Her name is Jaycee Amatto and they become good friends. Meanwhile, Nick's dad is trying to pull his life together by doing he unthinkable and walking from one state to another in order to lose weight because he was inspired by this story he read about another guy who did this also. Nick is mad that he is leaving but his dad says that he had too. While he is walking, he sends Nick emails everyday saying how many miles he's walked so far and how many he has to go before he comes home. Nick never replies because he's still mad at him. This story also involves a little kid that is known as "the Scoot." The Scoot has a rare disease that makes him look old when he's young and he will eventually die soon; he doesn't have much time left and he wants to make sure everyone knows his life wasn't sad but it was the best time he's ever had. During this story he struggles but gains confidence in himself.

Nick can be an ignorant boy sometimes, he has brown hair and brown eyes and he is 14 years old. His dad is a total disappointment to Nick. He's fat, lazy, and doesn't do anything with him. Jaycee Amatto is into dying her hair different colors and skinny jeans. She has black hair and ends up being good friends with Nick. I thought that this book was good to read and I liked reading about Nick's dads adventuresand how he accomplished them. Only at some points in the book did it get exciting for me. I would recommend this book to people that like life adventures and tough decision making. Also if you don't like a lot of suspense but some, this book is perfect also. I would not recommend this book to anyone that hates life lessons and sort of tacky things.(less)

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Jan 03, 2012 Teresa Garrett rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: realistic-fiction, winter-2011-12, ya

Beautiful YA story with a strange cast of characters: Scoot, Jaycee, Yoda, Steinbeck(yes the author), Robert Burns(yes the poet)and Nick the main character. Nick and Jaycee are on a trip to find Scoot's missing father as a deathbed promise and things oft go awry to paraphrase the book. I enjoyed the interweaving of pop culture and classic literature into a gripping story that I honestly did not want to see end. First book I bought and read on my new Nook!!

1 like · like · see review

Jan 24, 2013 Riley Smith rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: critical-reviews

The Pull of Gravity is about Jaycee and Nick looking for the Scoot's dad. The Scoot has a rare disease and is dieing. The Scoot tells Jaycee that he wants to give his dad back a book that his dad gave to him when he was young. Jaycee says she can't do it alone and convinces Nick to go with her. They leave one weekend to go find Scoot's dad and there are many twists and feelings and Nick and Jaycee discover that they might like each other more than what they thought. They discover there is more...more

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Sep 17, 2011 Liza Wiemer added it

The Pull of Gravity will definitely pull you into the MC Nick Gardner's life and take you along on a journey this freshman wasn't quite prepared for but will definitely change him forever. Scooter, his friend and neighbor, has Hutchinson-Giford progeria syndrome, a disease that's killing him, Nick's father is obese and decides to walk to NYC to get his life in order, and then Jaycee, a girl who's own life has been pretty messed up, pops in and complicates everything for Nick by becoming obsessed...more

1 like · like · see review

Jan 12, 2012 Karen Yingling rated it 2 of 5 stars

Nick has mulitple problems. After he breaks his leg climbing a small tower during a fever-induced hallucination, his overweight and underemployed father decides to take off, feeling guilty over being asleep when Nick had his accident. He is walking to New York City, where the family had lived previously, in order to lose weight and "find himself". Nick's neighbor and best friend, Scooter, is dying of progeria, which ages him rapidly and causes all sorts of health problems. On the up side, Nick m...more

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May 16, 2011 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars

We all hate required reading. In fact, anyone who says they love required reading is lying. Yes, we may love it later but we do not love it at the time we are required to read it.

IMHO, the best thing for required reading is companion novels. So, if you have to read Of Mice and Men, also read The Pull of Gravity. Steinbeck, Star Wars, friendship, and a road trip: realistic teen characters will relate Steinbeck’s epic messages to today’s teens in a fun way. Yoda gets quoted just as much (maybe mor...more

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Dec 23, 2011 Kay Mcgriff rated it 5 of 5 stars

I got to celebrate my first Christmas of the year with family last Sunday, and I received two of my favorite presents--a book! and another book! One of those books was The Pull of Gravity by Gae Polisner. You are going to love it, as did many other readers. That's right. The Pull of Gravity is one of the winners for YA Fiction for the first Nerdies Award. Here are some of my favorite things about The Pull of Gravity:

1.It's a book about a book. Okay, not really, but Nick and Jaycee travel with a...more

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Jan 16, 2013 Bmankiewicz rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya

Nick is a young high school boy adjusting to his depressed father’s departure and the imminent death of his disabled neighbor, Scooter. He discovers a punk girl at school, who also knew Scooter. Against his better judgment, but lured by Jaycee’s quirky charms and a sense of obligation, Nick embarks on a quest to return a valuable copy of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men to the father who abandoned Scooter . The Reader goes along for the (greyhound bus) ride, which has the appeal of young people reach...more

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Feb 04, 2012 cecilia rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Pull Of Gravity may not sound too extraordinary, but the characters definitely make this story come to life with their Slinky bracelets, feverish dreams of evil cherry cola monsters, and wise Yoda-isms. Nick’s “nice guy” personality keeps Jaycee’s larger-than-life eccentricities at bay, and together they make the journey to find Scoot’s dad as memorable and one-of-a-kind as the destination. Every time they seemed to get a hold of a sticky situation, there always seemed to be another one on t...more

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About Gae Polisner

I am the author of THE PULL OF GRAVITY (fsg/Square Fish), and the forthcoming THE SUMMER OF LETTING GO (Algonquin Young Readers). Please note that, though I originally tried to assign star-ratings to my reviews (and, thus, you will see some of my favorite books with stars), I have stopped doing so. It feels presumptuous to me to try to assign such a rating, so I merely provide (in some cases) my b...more

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