Sixteen-year-old Ted O’Connor’s parents just died in a fiery car crash, and now he’s stuck with a set of semi-psycho foster parents, two foster brothers — Astin, the cocky gearhead, and C.W., the sometimes gangsta — and an inner-city high school full of delinquents. He’s having pretty much the worst year of his miserable life. Or so he thinks. Is it possible that becoming an orphan is not the worst thing that could have happened to him?

This is a heartwarming story about a misfit who never fit in and was always on the receiving end of the bullies’ fist when he was the quiet son of two quirky pet shop owning parents, and who feels like he fits in even less now that he’s an orphan living in a foster home. Ted has always taken solace in his conversations with animals. They communicate with him not only about their own lives, but to give him advice, comfort and guidance. But as he finally finds his little niche in life, when he’s finally able to have a friendship with, not only his diverse foster housemates, but with an older girl at school, he realizes he can no longer hear his furry and feathered friends. As quirky as that sounds, Koertge’s easy-going writing style and the words he puts into his characters’ mouths make everything totally believable. And he doesn’t hit the reader over the head with his premise - it’s left to the reader to decide if Ted really can communicate – or is it just a coping mechanism. ( )

A YA book about a boy who has to go into foster care after becoming an orphan. His relatonship with animals is interesting and well done. The human relationships are a little harder to follow because they're complicated and the book is written in the first person viewpoint of a character who has little understanding of those complications. I've seen that challenge handled better in other books. One complication Koertge does remarkably well, though, is the ambivalence Ted feels toward his parents (now dead).

I rated this 3 1/2 stars for my own reading pleasure, because I hold YA books up to the same standards as adult books. If I were to rate it on a curve with other YA books, though, I'd give it another half-star or more. ( )

Ted parents, who were just killed in a fiery car crash, owned a pet store, which somehow gave Ted the amazing ability to talk to animals. Now Ted feels like a stray himself, having to go into the foster care system. Join him as he learns to run with a new pack in this sensitive enlightening story about dealing with loss and growing up. ( )