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My son selected this for Family Book Group. He prefers what he terms "realistic fiction" and Jerry Spinelli is one of his favorite authors.

Like some of his other titles, this one is about finding your true self and identifying your real friends. Palmer's isolation is anguishing - it's very hard for me (as an adult) to read about him running around with his thuggish friends and working so hard to appear to be something he isn't. It was also hard to me to accept that the adults in his life wouldn't intervene - his teachers and parents clearly recognized something was wrong, but didn't do much to help him find his way.

That said, I appreciated that the parents showed some growth during the novel. The dad, especially, comes to realize that his son might not feel the same as he did at that age. I thought his quiet, caring, companionship with Palmer during Family Fest was especially poignant:

During the week his father said many things, mostly with his hands. He rubbed Palmer's hair and squeezed his shoulder and tugged on his shirt and tickled his ribs and pulled him backward with a finger hooked in the back pocket of his jeans and lightly brushed the side of his neck with his fingertips as he stopped and chatted with friends. Each of these things had a different meaning to Palmer and yet the same - a language unlearned, of words unheard, that came to roost at some warm and waiting perch far below his ears. (206)

For me, Dorothy is a real hero of the book. She put up with Palmer when he and his friends mocked her. She called him on his sh*t (maybe a little too late, but she did it). And she was a real friend when he returned to her later. Dorothy is the friend I'd want if I were ten again.