Garvey's Choice

Gr 4-8--Garvey can't quite live up to his father's traditional expectations of masculinity. He would rather sing and ponder space travel than undertake any athletic endeavor. But a chance chorus recital presents a turning point for their relationship: "I stand before the mirror, /smiling at a boy/whose frame is familiar/but changed, unfinished--all me." Using tanka, Grimes expertly crafts a family life that is deeply intimate yet inviting--a story of small but powerful transformations.

Writing in five-line tanka poems, Grimes (Words with Wings) weaves a heart-wrenching story about a boy who isn't the jock his father dreamed he would be. Garvey loves books and, despite his father's efforts, cannot get excited about sports. He eats to mask the pain of his father's disappointment and is teased at school for his size. Help arrives in the form of friends Joe and Manny, an albino boy who embraces his difference, but when Garvey risks joining the school chorus and lets his voice soar, he learns to become proud of what he can do, instead of focusing on what he can't. In simple, searing language, Grimes captures Garvey's heartache at his father's inability to accept him as he is, as well as the casual but wounding teasing Garvey endures at school ("The change bell always/ sinks fear into me like teeth./ Ugly name-calling leaves me with bloody bite marks: / lard butt, fatso, Mister Tubbs"). Garvey's journey to self-acceptance is deeply moving and will linger with readers long after they finish this brief, incisive verse novel. Ages 8-12. (Oct.)