MY BROTHER’S KEEPER

What’s a ninth grader to do? Thirteen-year-old Toby Malone thinks he has to keep everything together: Ever since Dad left, Mom’s moping, older brother Jake’s increasingly reckless and secretive and little brother Eli is more withdrawn. Toby’s also expected to live up to Jake’s status as the school’s star baseball player. All this while it’s just dawning on him that the cute girl in school likes him. Then Toby, reluctantly along for a joy ride with Jake and his smarmy new friends, nearly gets creamed in a serious accident, and he realizes that he can’t hide Jake’s drug use from their mom anymore; serious consequences ensue. Brother ain’t heavy, though. Toby’s a likable, relatable protagonist, and he tells his story in very humorous first person as McCormick pulls off that rare feat of treating a serious subject with just the right lightness of tone. Splendidly done. (Fiction. 11-13)