The Absolute Value of Mike

Posted on 10 August 2017 by Kathryn Erskine

Mike tries so hard to please his father, but the only language his dad seems to speak is calculus And for a boy with a math learning disability, nothing could be difficult When his dad sends him to live with distant relatives in rural Pennsylvania for the summer to work on an engineering project, Mike figures this is his big chance to buckle down and prove himself But when he gets there, nothing is what he thought it would be The project has nothing at all to do with engineering, and he finds himself working alongside his wacky eighty something year old aunt, a homeless man, and a punk rock girl as part of a town wide project to adopt a boy from Romania Mike may not learn anything about engineering, but what he does learn is far valuable. Best Read The Absolute Value of Mike By Kathryn Erskine For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr My son and I are reading this togetherMike Frost is 14 years old, and ever since his mother died, he has been almost solely responsible for the care of his father, a brilliant math engineering professor, who s fantastic with numbers, and terrible at managing life Mike s own dyscalculia a math disability proves a sticking point between he and his father To help solve this, Mike s father announces that while he will be teaching overseas for the summer, Mike will go to stay with relatives in rural Pennsylvania, to help build Mike Frost is 14 years old, and ever since his mother died, he has been almost solely responsible for the care of his father, a brilliant math engineering professor, who s fantastic with numbers, and terrible at managing life Mike s own dyscalculia a math disability proves a sticking point between he and his father To help solve this, Mike s father announces that while he will be teaching overseas for the summer, Mike ...I feel like this book needed onepass through the revision process The potential was really there I loved the kooky people of Do Over and their community spirit, and how Mike found his absolute value through his project with them However, a lot of it just rang false and dead horses were beaten For example, Mike s CONSTANT freak out about Patch s homelessness bordered on obnoxious, as did his treatment of his grieving great uncle It seemed like Erskine couldn t be subtle about anyth I feel like this book needed onepass through the revision process The potential was really there I loved the kooky people of Do Over and their community spirit, and how Mike found his absolute value through his project with them However, a lot of it just rang false and dead horses were beaten For example, Mike s CONSTANT freak out about Patch s homelessness borde...I m a huge fan of books with quirky odd characters as you may or may not know, and this book definitely delivers The story is set in a small PA town Mike moves in with his elderly octogenerian aunt and uncle when his socially awkward overweight father goes to Romania for the summer They are not your typical seniors Moo is a very active woman with awful eyesight and a lot of great one liners Poppy doesn t move He sits in the same chain in his duck slippers and only will eat scrapple Both I m a huge fan of books with quirky odd characters as you may or may not know, and this book definitely delivers The story is set in a small PA town Mike moves in with his elderly octogenerian aunt and uncle when his socially awkward overweight father goes to Romania for the summer They are not your typical seniors Moo is a very active woman with awful eyesight and a lot of great one liners Poppy doesn t move He sits in the same chain in his du...This was an upbeat story filled with likable characters This story is aimed at preteen readers, but I enjoyed it just the same.Mike takes care of his father, who is a rather absent minded mathematical genius But Mike is definitely not mathematical, despite his father s hopes When Mike s father decides to send him to spend the summer with distant relatives in rural Pennsylvania to work on an engineering project, Mike sees it as a way to finally prove himself to his father Mike discovers farthan an engineering project when he arrives In fact, there is no engineering project at all There is his wild driving near Mike takes care of his father, who is a rather absent minded mathematical genius But Mike is definitely not mathematical, despite his father s hopes When Mike s father decides to send him to spend the summer with distant relatives in rural Pennsylvania to work on an engineering project, Mike sees it as a way to finally prove himself to his father Mike discovers farthan an engineering project when he arrives In fact, there is no engineering project at all There is his wild driving nearly blind aunt, his uncle who is so deep in mourning over the death of his adult son that he can t move, a homeless man who has good business sense and is willing to give the shirt off his back, literally, and a tattooed an...This book took me awhile to get into it I felt like Erskine might have struggled with the start as well, but once the story got going, it took me away The biggest challenge was understanding some of thebizarre characters Their conversations were just difficult to follow As I came to understand them, though, they becameinteresting, and I was able to appreciate themfully I really enjoyed the sto...I absolutely love this book, it is the perfect middle grade boy book and really quite different from Kathryn Erskine s National Book Award winning Mockingbird in that it features a boy character and has a lighter, funnier tone.Mike has a hard time relating to his mathematical genius father, especially since he did not acquire the math genius gene and has dyscalculia, a mathematical disability When his father leaves the country to teach for 6 weeks, Mike is left to the care of his elderly Great I absolutely love this book, it is the perfect middle grade boy book and really quite different from Kathryn Erskine s National Book...What a lovely story Mike is an endearing young protagonist who has to grow up too soon due to his father s total lack of basic social and living skills he is too busy thinking about math and engineering and the loss of his mother When he is packed off to live with his crazy great aunt and despondent uncle, he quickly finds himself immersed in the quirky small town that is dying for his energy, youth, and ability to lead.The story that unfolds is painful, beautiful, honest, and sweet, all cou What a lovely story Mike is an endearing young protag...I was laughing from page 1 Mike s genius father is teaching a 6 week class in Romania, and so 14 year old Mike has to go to Pennsylvania with his great aunt and uncle His relatives are in their 80s, their son recently died, and Poppy hasn t moved out of his armchair since Moo s eyesight is failing, and she trusts her car Tyrone to drive her where she needs to go Mike is at first alarmed by this environment he s been dropped into, but he soon rallies to help the community raise 40,000 in 3 I...

English
10 August 2017

Kathryn Erskine