Items related to What I Heard
When thirteen-year-old Michael, home sick from school, answers a telephone call meant for his father's ears only, his family security is threatened as he faces the reality of his parents' relationship.
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From School Library Journal:
Grade 5-8 What twelve-year-old Michael Kramer hears, by eavesdropping on a telephone conversation, is his father talking to his mistress Celeste. The knowledge of his father's affair is traumatic for Michael, making it difficult to answer his mother's questions about his sudden moodiness, or to feel normal and relaxed around his father. Michael's friend Tannenbaum provides a sounding board for his anger and frustration, but little moral support. Michael decides to confront Celeste, but when he calls, it is his father who answers. In a weak and confusing conclusion, Michael's father ends the affair, Michael's mother does not become involved, and Michael accepts his father's love, but cannot yet forgive him. This novel compares more favorably to a television program than it does to other YA novels with similar plots, such as John Rowe Townsend's Downstream (Lippincott, 1987). It reads as if written under the constraints of that medium rather than with the liberties and license to create a full story that are available to a novelist. Characters are two-dimensional and are seen only in situations that have a direct bearing on the plot. The plot is lean and unsophisticated; only events immediately relating to Michael's discovery and its resolution are included. Although superficial, the novel is readable, and should be as popular (and as memorable) as many current TV programs. Allen Meyer, Vernon Area Public Library District, Prairie View, Ill.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Publishers Weekly:
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The author of My Life in the 7th Gradetells this comic and poignant tale in the words of Michael, and what Michael hears isn't good. Listening in on phone conversations at home, he discovers that his father is "dating" a woman named Celeste. Angry and worried for his mother, the boy consults his best friend, Arthur, a self-proclaimed expert on sex. There is delightfully broad humor in exchanges between the pals as they plan a campaign to break up the affair before Mrs. Kramer learns of it. The fast, absorbing novel arrives at a satisfactory end with no hokey contrivances as father and son reach an understanding and forgiveness. A Charlotte Zolotow book. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherHarperCollins Publishers
- Publication date1987
- ISBN 10 0060221615
- ISBN 13 9780060221614
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages119
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