My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger

The holiday break starts this week and many students (and teachers) are looking for books to keep them occupied. Being out of school provides a perfect time to catch up on reading--and watching football--HA!

My Most Excellent Year: a Novel of Love, Mary Poppins and Fenway Park by Steve Kluger is a great lighthearted read for the Christmas break. The characters and plot are not particularly deep, but they are people that you would like to spend your holidays with and it has a happy feel-good ending. Like I said, it is the perfect book to read over the holiday.

I first picked up the book because of the title; I really wanted to know how Mary Poppins and Fenway Park fit together. In a way that is very popular now, this book is told from the point of view of the three main characters: TC, Augie and Ale'. The three teens are given an assignment in their Junior English class to write about their "most Excellent year." All three of them write about their freshmen year is high school and thus the story is told in alternating views throughout their 9th grade year.

TC is perfect--he is the guy you would want for your best friend, boyfriend, brother, son... When he was 6 years old, his mother died of cancer and he "adopted" Augie as his "brother." In face, Augie and TC are so close that they call each other's parents Mom, Dad and Pop, they have beds and dressers in each other's rooms, and they share everything. TC and Pop share a love of the Red Sox, in fact, TC, like every member of his family, was named for a Red Sox player. Augie is even more of a stereotype than TC. He loves musical theatre, is a born performer and is the last one to admit that he is gay. His freshman year is filled with his search for love and his attempt accept himself even though everyone else already does. Alejandra moves to Boston as a freshmen and quickly becomes a love interest for TC. She is as strong willed as he is and works hard to resist him. Throw in a 6-year-old deaf kid who is obsessed with Mary Poppins and you have a great book that explores not only young love and friendship, but also what really makes a family.

The characters are kind of stereotypes, but they are very likable. This book isn't going to win a Nobel Prize or anything, but it is a fun book . And it made me happy when I read it. Sometimes we need to read "junk food" for the mind. And this book fits that bill.

Happy Holidays!