Jumping the Scratch

When a series of bad events happen in a short period of time, Jamie believes that his bad spell is over and begins to deal with the main issue at hand, the memory loss of his aunt Sapphy, yet when another tragedy strikes, Jamie realizes that he will need his aunt's memory to resolve the issue.

Grade 5-7 After his father runs off with the cashier at the MicroMart, Jamie Reardon and his mother move from Battle Creek to Traverse City in northern Michigan to live with Aunt Sapphy at the Wondrous Acres trailer park. His aunt had an accident at the cherry factory and is unable to make any new memories. Jamie wants to find the magic trigger that will help her memory get unstuck, or jump the scratch, like a needle on a record. Ironically, he is trying to forget what happened on Christmas Eve involving a button pressed into his cheek, the taste of butterscotch candy, and Old Gray, the manager of the trailer park. The memory haunts his days and inhibits his making friends or doing well in school. Weeks alludes to sexual abuse, but with a broad brush and no graphic details. When Jamie tells Aunt Sapphy, just to unload his guilt and speak the words, she jumps the scratch and gets him help. Weeks perfectly captures not only the guilt, shame, and pain of the abused boy but also the tenor of a fifth-grade classroom from the point of view of a new student who is friendless, targeted, and belittled by an insensitive teacher. Touches of humor ameliorate the pain and poignancy. Another winner from the author of So Be It (HarperCollins, 2005), which also looks at the redemptive power of memory. Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME
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Gr. 4-6. Life has turned sour for Jamie Reardon. His father has taken off, and now Jamie lives with his mother in his aunt Sapphy's trailer. Sapphy, who was hit in the head at her factory job, has lost her short-term memory, so every day, Jamie or his mother must explain again why they are with her. If Jamie's trials at home aren't enough, he is teased at school, and his diffidence is the bane of his teacher's existence. The best part of the story is Jamie's relationship with Sapphy, one vaguely suggestive of the daughter and mother in Weeks' So. Be. It. (2004). Jamie transcends the repetitiveness of their relationship by coming up with sensory clues to jump-start Sapphy's memory, at first with no success. Then a neighbor girl hypnotizes Jamie, evoking the memory of his recent abuse by a caretaker at the trailer park. Jamie's emotional reaction to the incident he was trying to suppress shakes Sapphy and returns her memory. The abuse story, mostly a device, is not well integrated into the narrative, with almost everything happening offstage. But the characters are well drawn; readers will care about them and applaud their well-deserved triumphs. Ilene Cooper
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