Breakfast with Neruda

by Laura Moe

Overview

Michael Flynn is just trying to get through his community service after he made the dumb decision to try to blow up his friend's car with fireworks--the same friend who stole Michael's girl. Being expelled and losing his best buddy and his girlfriend are the least of his problems: Michael has learned to hide everything, from his sick hoarder mother to the fact that he's stuck living in a 1982 Ford LTD station wagon he calls the Blue Whale. Then one day, during mandatory community service, he meets Shelly, a girl with a past, who's also special enough to unmask Michael's deepest secrets. Can he manage to be worthy of her love, a guy living in a car, unable to return to his chaotic and fit-to-be-condemned home? Shelly won't give up, and tries to peel back the layers of garbage and pain to reveal Michael's immense heart.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440592201
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	04/01/2016
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
Lexile:	HL650L (what's this?)
File size:	652 KB
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Laura Moe is the author of Breakfast with Neruda, a Simon&Schuster book.

Editorial Reviews

"This debut is...flecked with an endearing blend of idealism, empathy, and quirk..." —Booklist

"Moe uses lyrical language to introduce teenagers whose problems go beyond bullying or unrequited love. She treats Michael's unusual home situation with realistic grace, while the relationship between the two teenagers is organic and interesting. A summer long punishment becomes a sensitive, thoughtful novel." —Kirkus Reviews

"It's about love and understanding and betrayal and pain. All the necessary ingredients to make a connection to the reader." —Teen Librarian Toolbox

"There is a beautiful relationship between two teens who connect over poems of Neruda...and their ever-witty banter." —Voya Magazine

"Those who choose to read it will not regret it. It addresses some interesting topics (hoarding, missing father, community service, car bombs), and the not-so-average love story is refreshing. A good, quick read to take readers away from the usual dystopia and back into the real world." —Voya Magazine

"Character-driven, funny, lyrical." —New York Public Library Bibliophile blog

NYPL Best Book for Teens 2016 Pick

From the Publisher

05/01/2016
Gr 9 Up—This debut novel offers honest yet optimistic insight into teenage homelessness and hoarding. Despite getting expelled for bringing a bomb to school, Michael Flynn, 18, is a straight-A honors student with good manners. During the summer, he is relegated to cleaning the school to avoid jail time. There, he meets fellow rebel Shelly, who discovers that Michael lives in his station wagon. The two form a relationship but keep secrets from each other. Michael finds out the reason his mom hoards and never brings it up to her, yet a quarter of the book is his mother's diary, which never feels completely integrated into the text. Though the mother's entries provide context for Michael's family's issues, they make the work feel disjointed. Michael also visits his father, whom he researched throughout the novel, but this narrative thread doesn't get fully resolved. Michael is a likable protagonist. However, the characters aren't dynamic, and the work's dialogue varies and is inauthentic to the characters. The author's important message about homeless teens and how people shouldn't judge them gets confused in the inconsistent writing style. The conclusion also lacks punch. VERDICT A good debut attempt at portraying homelessness, but a little off the mark.—Rachel Reinwald, Lake Villa District Library, IL

School Library Journal

2016-03-02
Two kids are obliged to spend their summers working with the janitors to clean out the high school before it reopens in the fall. Michael didn't mean to blow up the school. His plan was to blow up his ex-best friend's car with those bundles of firecrackers. But authorities didn't quite believe him, so he was sentenced to community service over the summer. Shelly smokes on school grounds—that's her excuse, anyway, for the summerlong detention. The two white teens find plenty to talk about and plenty to hide as they grow close over the long days. They share a passion for reading, especially the poetry of Pablo Neruda, and they slowly reveal their secrets to each other. Together, Michael and Shelly confront the realities they've been dealt and struggle to move forward together. Moe uses lyrical language to introduce teenagers whose problems go beyond bullying or unrequited love. She treats Michael's unusual home situation with realistic grace, while the relationship between the two teenagers is organic and interesting. Occasionally, the imagery is distractingly pat, as when Shelly overidentifies with two ducks far from water and says she and Michael are "kind of like those ducks….An odd pair of misfits, way out of our leagues." A summerlong punishment becomes a sensitive, thoughtful novel. (Fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews