THE AMAZING LIFE OF BIRDS

Twelve-year-old Duane Homer Leech feels he’s in the clutches of something insidious, a cruel joke that’s ruining his life. Everyone calls it “puberty,” but what exactly is puberty? He can’t walk without tripping; he’s a human zit factory; when females are near, he can’t form words, much less coherent sentences. He sees ELBOWS everywhere (that’s his code word for those other parts of anatomy, which you can probably guess). At school, he causes a ringworm scare by cutting off his cowlick, leaving a circular bald spot. He destroys the library by falling against a shelf reaching for a book on puberty. Duane commiserates over the phone with his friend Willy and feels a kinship with the awkward, ugly baby bird that lives on his windowsill. Between Willy and the bird, Duane realizes that life after puberty won’t be nearly as hellish. Paulsen has created a humorous Are you There God? It’s Me, Margaret for boys. Every male on either side of puberty will see themselves in Duane. At times laugh-out-loud funny, here is an only slightly exaggerated manual for every boy encountering his first life change. (Fiction. 10-14)