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Catching Crazy
Life stinks for Thurman. His parents have recently divorced, his dog has run away, and his mom can t afford the new baseball glove he wants for his upcoming season. When his crazy, one-legged neighbor, Harlan, offers him some paid work, Thurman leaps at the opportunity. Neighbors have always warned to avoid Harlan, but Thurman needs his normal life back, and is sure a new glove could help with that. Can he survive the job that long, though?
136 pages, Paperback
First published September 14, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 26, 2018
I liked this book. I picked it because my dad recommended it to me. Also, because it looked short and easy, but it turned out to be a lot better than I thought. I liked the part when Thurman was in his music class and he had to wave his hands out in front of everyone. That part made me laugh.
Overall this is a really funny book. At first, it starts out kind of slow, but when you get to around the middle part of the beginning, it starts to get funny. Then, it gets really funny and you get hooked. You can't stop reading, or laughing. This is a really good book, I recommend it to anyone.
Overall this is a really funny book. At first, it starts out kind of slow, but when you get to around the middle part of the beginning, it starts to get funny. Then, it gets really funny and you get hooked. You can't stop reading, or laughing. This is a really good book, I recommend it to anyone.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 7, 2009
Catching Crazy by Jacob Cummer
Publisher: Fullproof Publishing, 2009
Pages: 13
ISBN: 978-0-9822326-4-4
Source: LibraryThing giveaway
Thurman is a sixth grader trying to figure out what normal is. His parents are divorced and his dog is missing. He deals with things by clowning around. All he wants is for things to be normal again. But, what is normal? This is something he will learn from his neighbor. Harlan is the one-legged man, who sits in his front yard everyday, smoking his pipe. Rumor is, you don’t want to get to close to him because you might catch his crazy.
When Thurman’s dog goes missing he asks his neighbor if he has seen his dog. Harlan tells him he hasn’t and offers him a job. With money being tight since the divorce, Thurman has no choice but to take Harlan up on his job offer if he want to have a brand new baseball glove. Harlan’s idea of a job is to have Thurman sit and visit with him, talking about all kinds of things, occasionally reading to him or refilling his glass of tea. At the end of each work day, Harlan has a question for Thurman to ponder. It is through these questions that Thurman gets the answers to the questions in his heart. These answers start filling in the gaps in his life. He also realizes that if people had tried to get to know the old man they would have realized he wasn’t crazy. There was always a good reason for the things he did. This book was very good. It was an emotional read that made me cry. I told my mother about the book, read her some excerpts and cried again. I give this a 5 out of 5 rating. It will fit in well on my shelves at school and I am sure it will reach many of my students who have these same questions or situations in their life.
Publisher: Fullproof Publishing, 2009
Pages: 13
ISBN: 978-0-9822326-4-4
Source: LibraryThing giveaway
Thurman is a sixth grader trying to figure out what normal is. His parents are divorced and his dog is missing. He deals with things by clowning around. All he wants is for things to be normal again. But, what is normal? This is something he will learn from his neighbor. Harlan is the one-legged man, who sits in his front yard everyday, smoking his pipe. Rumor is, you don’t want to get to close to him because you might catch his crazy.
When Thurman’s dog goes missing he asks his neighbor if he has seen his dog. Harlan tells him he hasn’t and offers him a job. With money being tight since the divorce, Thurman has no choice but to take Harlan up on his job offer if he want to have a brand new baseball glove. Harlan’s idea of a job is to have Thurman sit and visit with him, talking about all kinds of things, occasionally reading to him or refilling his glass of tea. At the end of each work day, Harlan has a question for Thurman to ponder. It is through these questions that Thurman gets the answers to the questions in his heart. These answers start filling in the gaps in his life. He also realizes that if people had tried to get to know the old man they would have realized he wasn’t crazy. There was always a good reason for the things he did. This book was very good. It was an emotional read that made me cry. I told my mother about the book, read her some excerpts and cried again. I give this a 5 out of 5 rating. It will fit in well on my shelves at school and I am sure it will reach many of my students who have these same questions or situations in their life.
October 29, 2009
What started out as a bad day for 12 year old Thurman just kept getting worse. Being the class clown had already helped him get through his parents divorce, now maybe comedy could get him through forgetting to put on deodorant and smelling as bad as his dog. Now that very same dog is missing and Thurman realizes that there are only a few things he needs to make him feel normal again. Finding his dog, finding out if his dad really loves him and getting a new glove before baseball season starts. While looking for Smelly (the dog) he comes across his crazy neighbor Harlan. Harlan offers him a job. Maybe a job would help him accomplish the easiest task on his list, make money and buy his own glove. In the course of his new job, Thurman helps Harlan by answering the big questions of life.
What a strange bond to create for this young boy. This was a very good, sentimental journey for Thurman packed full of symbolism and hidden meanings. Adolescence dealing with divorce, lose and fitting-in leaves most kids feeling anything but normal and for this unlikely match that was what brought them together and allowed Thurman to find something of himself along the way. A touching and wonderful way to convey to any child who is trying to grow up “normal” that it really is ‘ok’ to be just a little crazy, maybe we all are anyway. I really liked this book, I am not sure who it is suppose to be geared for but I think that anyone from 9 up would find a bit of themselves with the help of Thurman and Harlan‘s work.
What a strange bond to create for this young boy. This was a very good, sentimental journey for Thurman packed full of symbolism and hidden meanings. Adolescence dealing with divorce, lose and fitting-in leaves most kids feeling anything but normal and for this unlikely match that was what brought them together and allowed Thurman to find something of himself along the way. A touching and wonderful way to convey to any child who is trying to grow up “normal” that it really is ‘ok’ to be just a little crazy, maybe we all are anyway. I really liked this book, I am not sure who it is suppose to be geared for but I think that anyone from 9 up would find a bit of themselves with the help of Thurman and Harlan‘s work.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews