Alida's Song

Alida's Song is about a boy who is fourteen. He at first lives in a city with his parents. His parents don't take care of him, so he works to get money to feed himself. He first delivers newspapers and then buys fresh bread from the local bakery. Then goes to school, he doesn't have any friends and he is not good at talking to girls. After school he works at the local bowling alley and sets up pins. At the end of each day he gets at least six dollars. When he gets home his parents are always getting drunk and fighting all the time. He wants to leave the big city and go somewhere else. One day he receives a letter from his grandmother Alida saying to work with her in a farm owned by two old men. He leaves the city and comes to live in the farm. During his first few days he helps by making the milk and by picking the mustard seeds and the weeds. On every Sunday, everyone in the town comes to a dance. On one Sunday, it's his grandmother's 45th anniversary. The band plays a song called Alida's Song for Alida and she dances with her grandson.

This book is a great book. The boy leaves the city to go to his grandmother to help in the farm. This book is about the boy taking care of his old grandmother. I would give this book to someone who likes farm life. I wish the library had the first book, The Cook Camp. I would certainly read The Cook Camp if the library gets it.

Delivering papers, , almost failing 8th grade, living in the basement below his drunken parents' apartment, he is called to work on a farm with his grandmother - the cows walking up in the morning mist, pulling weeds from 160 acres, -- made me cry... ( )

Northern Minnesota may not sound like much of a vacation spot for a city boy, but when your parents drink and fight and the eighth grade hovers over your shoulder with a fat F, a summer with grandma doing odd jobs just might turn things around.