KALINE KLATTERMASTER’S TREE HOUSE

Kaline Klattermaster, fresh out of third grade, is one of those kids who TALKS IN CAPITAL LETTERS, has a crazy mother and moves between his imaginary world and the real world with breathtaking frequency. Though the book is written in the third person, this style of using capital letters all the time gives the appearance that Kaline is actually writing the book himself. From within this frantic narrative, the reader has to dig out the bones of the story: Kaline’s obsessively organized father has left the family and everything is out of whack. There is no one to make the dinners, clean the house, mow the lawn or keep everything straight. Kimmel peers into the world of a creative, wildly imaginative boy facing his first real crisis. She cares deeply for the boy, but it will take a special reader to sort through the imaginary friends, side trips into the absurd and detours into the unlikely. Worth the effort, though, for those who persevere will find abundant laughter and sweet resolution. (Fiction. 7-10)