Anyway*: *A Story About Me with 138 Footnotes, 27 Exaggerations, and 1 Plate of Spaghetti

Reinventing yourself takes humor, heart, and a TON of footnotes!

Max is a good kid—but you wouldn’t know that if you met him at the boring family camp his parents dragged him to over the summer. There, for a few exciting weeks, Max reinvents himself as “Mad Max” and gains a bad-boy reputation for being daring, cool, and fearless.

But when Max returns home, he finds it’s easier to be fearless with strangers than it is among friends, and he is not particularly proud of the way his behavior over the summer hurt people. Can he find a way to merge his adventurous alter ego with his true identity as a good guy?

Peppered with humorous handwritten footnotes and doodles throughout, Anyway* perfectly captures the viewpoint of a young teen doing his best to find his place in the world—and an ideal balance between wise guy and wimp.

Arthur Salm is a former newspaper columnist for the San Diego Union Tribune who now writes books full time.