I really liked the idea of the book when I read about it on NetGalley. Joe's mom and her boyfriend go on vacation in Spain and leave Joe all alone for a week. He is just 13. It is during a school vacation. Although it isn't stated in the book I would guess that Joe was on the spectrum. As the week becomes 2 weeks Joe runs out of money, leccy, and people start getting suspicious. Eventually Joe and his new friend Asha decide to go find Joe's Nan.
Overall I think I liked it but as I think about Maine Student Book Award there are some issues. The biggest issue is setting and therefore dialect and slang. This book is set in Great Britain so there is a lot of British English and slang that will trip up our readers - especially the younger ones. There were also references to boobs, smoking, alcohol, etc. For the higher end of our readers - not so bad but with a length of only 113 pages the younger students would be likely to pick it up. I felt that the ending was rushed...instead of showing how Joe and Asha were discovered through the story it was summarized after the were found.
The bullying in the book bothered me as well. I work in a school...I know there is bullying as far as teasing and taunting still but stealing lunch money and kids getting beat up? Maybe I am just naive...
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