February 10, 2014
Launching the Berenson Schemes series, Doan’s debut novel pits cautious Jack Berenson against his reckless parents with uproarious results. Jack stays with his aunt while his parents embark on doomed “get-rich-quick schemes,” including panning for gold in the Amazon, “which had not produced any gold but had produced intestinal parasites.” After Jack’s aunt dies, he’s forced to accompany them to the Caribbean to start a snorkeling business. The story’s dry humor is seeded in Jack’s ruminations about his parents (“They were like little kids who kept running into the road”) and their cross-purpose dialogue (Jack complains that they would be “horrible” homeschoolers who wouldn’t even check his homework, and his father laughs, “We’d never give you homework”). When Jack’s parents abandon him in a ramshackle skiff while they snorkel, the boat runs out of gas, and Jack drifts to an uninhabited island. With only a cynical parrot for company, the outdoors-averse 11-year-old uses his wits to survive while awaiting rescue. Stevanovic’s caricatured spot illustrations match up well with this funny and adventure-filled story of parent-child role reversal. Ages 9–12. Agent: Kathy Green, Kathryn Green Literary Agency.
April 1, 2014
Gr 4-6-Jack's parents have been all over the world in an effort to get rich quick, while leaving him with his aunt and uncle. Following the death of Jack's Aunt Julia, the boy must now live with his parents and participate in their latest scheme: snorkeling tours in the Caribbean. Unfortunately for Jack, they run out of fuel on an excursion together and, as the title suggests, Jack and his family find themselves shipwrecked. Will the Berensons escape unscathed? Will Jack actually befriend a whale shark named Tom? The story is a well-written debut novel and an introduction to a fun cast of characters and a series certain to be full of adventure. Pencil illustrations bring life to Jack and all of the craziness he and his family experience. This will likely entertain even the most reluctant of readers.-Wayne R. Cherry, Jr., First Baptist Academy Library, Houston, TX
Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
February 1, 2014
All Jack Berenson wants is to go to school like a normal sixth-grader and come home to parents who work regular, old 9-to-5 jobs, but life with Richard and Claire Berenson is anything but normal. When the two whisk their son off to the "undiscovered Caribbean" in hot pursuit of their next get-rich-quick scheme, Jack quickly finds himself stranded on a desert island with little more than a bird named Loco, a few bags of potato chips and a box of Spider-Man Band-Aids. Incredibly, there seems less reason to be concerned for Jack's welfare than for his flighty, accident-prone parents, who are safe on the mainland. Readers will be charmed by Jack, whose flair for checklists and self-preservation is both humorous and endearing. Middle-grade readers who tend to leave their socks on the floor will surely be intrigued by a kid whose first order of business upon being shipwrecked is to do laundry. While at first Jack's parents do seem alarmingly uninterested in their son's well-being, they gradually warm up to their role as parents. By book's end, the threesome even agree upon a set of family rules designed to save lives and still allow room for a bit of adventure. Readers who are list makers should make sure this series opener is included. (Adventure. 8-12)
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April 1, 2014
Grades 4-6 Many children's books feature young protagonists who are thrust into turmoil after being orphaned. In Doan's entertaining debut, Jack's misadventures begin once his absentee parents show up and whisk him off to the Caribbean. A sensible 11-year-old, Jack would much rather stay in Pennsylvania than risk his life in one of his parents' dangerous get-rich-quick schemes. Stuck on a deserted island with a rather irritating parrot, Jack learns survival skills as well as some more mundane coping skills, like not always automatically assuming the worst. Doan's swiftly paced narrative is well matched by Stevanovic's cartoony illustrations, the first of which showcases the skeletal frames of Jack's parents (victims of Amazon jungle intestinal parasites) as well as the deep distrust Jack has for his parents. By the end of the book, Jack and his folks have been reunited and have agreed on some important rules for one anotherthe bending of which should make for amusing continuations of the Berenson Schemes series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)
July 1, 2014
In this series-opener, eleven-year-old Jack's flighty parents drag him to the Caribbean for their latest get-rich-quick scheme: a snorkeling business. During their first outing, Jack ends up shipwrecked on an island alone and must survive while waiting for his dizzy parents to come to his rescue. The caricaturish illustrations add even more humor to a story that flips the usual parent-child relationship.
(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)