Seems like a fairly straightforward kid-with-challenges story, but Frankie is so full of heart that the book becomes very hard to put down. Frankie's mom has been put in jail. His estranged father comes to Texas to collect him and move him to a new home in Illinois with 4 younger half siblings. Frankie's distressed at having to leave his beloved trailer park and his trio of elderly friends there, and the move to Illinois becomes extra challenging when the extent of Frankie's school deficit becomes apparent. He handles things silently, gracefully, with his own agenda and becomes more embedded in the community as time goes on. Some heartbreaking scenes, some bullying, and a lot of adult conversations that go over his head but lead the reader to some ominous foreshadowing. It's really well done. I like the time and date format -- reads like short journal entries, which are easy chunks of narrative to take in. ( )

Freaky Fast Frankie Joe is about a boy trying to adjust to life without his mother. He finds friendship with a lady who explains to him his family history. This opens his eyes to how much responsibility his mother had. Students can use problem solving skills by discussing questions about the story. For example, "How do you think Frankie deals with his mother being in jail?" ( )

Twelve-year-old Frankie Joe Huckaby can't find anything good to say about Clearview, IL, where he must spend the next ten months living with a father he knows only through birthday cards, a stepmother he didn't know existed, and four half brothers intent on making him the "freak" of the town. When life in Clearview becomes unbearable, Frankie Joe hatches a plan to ride his bike back to the Lone Star Trailer Park in Laredo, TX. For that he needs money, and so he opens Frankie Joe's Freaky Fast Delivery Service. But Frankie Joe hasn't counted on quirky clients, unpredictable winter weather, and his equally unpredictable new family. ( )

Frankie Joe has good friends in the trailer park in Texas where he lives, but he has to leave and go live with his father, who he doesn't really know, and his new family in Illinois because his mother is in jail. He doesn't like it, and his half brothers, especially the oldest, Matt, don't like having him there. After years of not attending school regularly, he is not only required to go to school, he has to stay back a grade and double up on homework to catch up. So he plots a plan to run away to Texas (on his bike) and he begins a delivery service to save money. Unbeknownst to him, though, his father and step-mother have begun the process of adopting him and his unreliable mother is more than willing to go along. When he learns of her abandonment, he is devastated but in time realizes that his new family is really the right family for him.

While his turnarounds, both scholastically and emotionally, are unrealistically rapid, readers will empathize with and root for Frankie Joe. ( )