The Absolute Value of Mike- Kathryn Erskine

Title: The Absolute Value of Mike
Author: Erskine, Kathryn
Publisher: Penguin Group, 2011
ISBN-13: 978-0142421017

Genre: Realistic Fiction
Reading Level: 610 Lexile
Interest Level: 10+

Readers Annotation: Mike handles everything for his genius father. Now his father is going to Romania and he must go life with his great aunt and uncle in the middle of no where.

Plot:
Mike is used to communicating with his friends daily, taking care of the bills and remembering where things are so his father can function. His father is a math genius but has a hard time remembering the day to day tasks. When Mike is told his father is going to Romania and he is not allowed to be home alone, he thinks he gets to go too. Nope. He is sent to Pennsylvania to live with distant relatives to work on an engineering project. Mike dreads this because he has dyslexia when it comes to math. When he arrives in Pennsylvania, nothing is as it seems. The engineering project turns out to be a town-wide project to adopt a child from Romania. He works with a homeless man, his great aunt and a punk girl to try to save this boy. Can he do it?

Review:
This was a heartwarming and comical book about life lessons. Mike realizes that nothing is as it seems. The homeless man is completely different than Mike thought, so is his elderly aunt. The town is coming together for a goal but has no leader. Mike becomes that person. A summer that he was dreading turns out to be one he will never forget.

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