Ed's best friend, Pete Saltz, has a problem. He's in love with Anabell Stackpoole and is utterly unable to do anything about it. When Ed realizes Saltz is in desperate need of love assistance, he and the rest of his class come up with a plan to do a production of Romeo and Juliet with Saltz and Anabell in the leading rolls. However, putting together a play in only two weeks turns out to be a little more difficult than Ed could have imagined.

Okay, so this isn't really a young adult book like I anticipated, I'd say it is more for the elementary to tween reader. However, this adult (meaning me) found the book to be absolutely, gut wrenchingly hilarious!! I can't remember the last time I laughed as hard as I did while reading about this ill-fated production. The characters were quite endearing and were surprisingly developed for the story. I've never read anything by Avi before, but I'll have to keep an eye out for his books in the future, because whether it was written for kids or not, I loved this one. ( )

Ed plays matchmaker to help Pete, who's hopelessly in love with Anabell. When his class reads Romeo & Juliet he know who should play the leads in a school production. But can Ed pull it off?

Action-driven complement to a study of Romeo & Juliet. While the play is integral to the story, only selected scenes and lines are part of the story. Ed's story and predicaments add an interesting and humorous vehicle for Shakespeare. While the characters are 8th graders, the characters and situations will appeal to younger readers. Includes a bully. Sequel to S.O.R. Losers, but this story stands on its own. Gr 4-7 ( )