Aaron R. Hawkins

Jackson makes a deal with his strange neighbor that he will take over the running of her apple orchard, give her the firs $8000 in profits, and will receive the deed to the land. His alternative is working in a scrap metal year, so he jumps at the opportunity. While keeping the contract a secret, he has to figure out how to make a profit from the orchard. The school librarian in this book is nasty - BOO! But the story is suprisingly absorbing. I learned a bit about farming along with Jackson show more and his siblings and cousins. And really enjoyed the ingenuity and hard work demonstrated by the kids! They were given a lot of freedom by their folks to try out this experiment. It is set in the 80s and even captured things like taping favorite songs from the radio for repeated listening. show less

To avoid a summer job working at the scrap yard for a bullying boss, almost 14-year-old Jackson lets Mrs. Nelson, his weird neighbor, talk him into getting her apple orchard up and running--even though he has no idea of how to do it. He signs a contract that he will pay her $8,000 from his profits and she promises she will leave the orchard to him in her will. With a book from the library and the help of his siblings and cousins--plus lots and lots of hard work--it looks like he will have a show more bumper crop. On the other hand, he's not sure he will earn enough money to pay Mrs. Nelson, never mind his hard working cousins and siblings--and to make it worse, Mrs. Nelson's not sure she will leave him the orchard after all . . .

Let me start with what I liked about the book: It was well-written and moved along nicely. It was a feel-good book showing that hard work pays off and how people are willing to help if you let them. Those into mechanics will enjoy the drawings of the machinery and tools used in apple production and there are plenty of calculations to follow along with for those into math. I was not surprised to find that this book was written by an engineer!

There were, however, a few things I didn't like so much:

1) I hated how much Jackson lied. He lied through the whole book about so many different things and there were no consequences at all because if it . . . and there wasn't even that much tension about him being found out.
2) There were a few threads that got started but were not followed up on. There was this whole big deal about this odd librarian who didn't want kids in her library and wouldn't help them find books, but Jackson manages to check out the apple growing book. Then he drags the book to the orchard day after day, even leaving it in the mud overnight, and there is no followup on how the librarian reacted when he returned the book. In fact, we don't even know if he did return it and if he did, how he got along without it after the two-week loan period.
3) I hated all the poison he was spraying on the apples . . . he mentions something about wanting to grow organically but never follows through on it -- and then the kids are all feeling sick from spraying the poison so we know this is awful stuff -- but then they are stuffing themselves on these sprayed apples. Maybe it's just me, but that really creeped me out.

To sum up, I think kids will like this book and find the message empowering. They would probably not notice the things that bothered me. show less

Jackson Jones has no idea what he's gotten into when he agrees to tend the Mrs. Nelson's apple orchard, but anything has to be better than working at the scrap yard...right? Quickly realizing the futility of endeavoring alone, Jackson recruits his sisters and cousins to help him after school and on Saturdays tending to the orchard. From February through September, the kids work diligently--pruning the branches, fertilizing the soil, watering (not an easy task in dry New Mexico), spraying show more pesticides, thinning the apples, and eventually picking. The kids make it through the entire process and even forgive Jackson when he finally reveals to them the terms of his contract with Mrs. Nelson--that she gets $8000 of the profits and Jackson gets the orchard if he can make at least that much.

I really enjoyed this book overall. There were very, very few moments when I wanted to skim over the prose to "get on to" the next part. The main character, Jackson, is a fairly well-developed, dynamic character that the reader can easily sympathize with. Hamilton does a good job placing the story in time without ever actually coming out and saying when exactly it takes place. From pop culture references to "The A-Team" and Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" and "Beat It," the observant reader can place the story in the 1980s. However, the story holds the same significance whether one catches onto these context clues or not. Each character has a distinct personality that adds to the story. The development of the rugged band of cousins and siblings into a team displays the value of teamwork and the role that each person plays.

I think that this is a book that middle grade boys would enjoy quite a bit. I wouldn't discredit it as a book for girls, since there are prominent female characters, but it is not as "girly" of a story-line as many young girls might enjoy. The diagrams included by the author may seem tedious to some readers who aren't as interested in the farming aspects of the story. I would recommend this book for age 10 and up. show less

I got this as an e-book through NetGellay to review. I originally saw it through Amazon vine, but I picked something else when I went back to pick this book the next week it was gone. I am not sure what drew me to this book, it just sounded really interesting and peaked my curiosity. Overall it was a good book, well-written and full of both good messages and some light humor.

Jackson agrees to a proposal by his neighbor, who is an old conniving lady. He will bring her orchard back up to life; show more if he can clear $8000 in profits by the end of the growing year than he gets the deed to the land the orchard is on. Jackson enlists the help of his siblings and cousins. The group of kids learns a lot about growing apples, responsibility, and a ton about hard work.

The story is set in the 1980's and has a bit of 80's nostalgia about it; some of the fads were amusing to me and brought back some funny memories (I was a kid in the 80's). The detail that went into growing the apples in the apple orchard was very interesting and I was impressed with the research that went into writing this story.

Jackson is a great character and you can't help but love his resourcefulness. I also love how much he started caring about the orchard as he worked on it. The relationships he forms with the other kids during their summer of hard labor is wonderful. It is a great story about family, friends, hardwork, and entrepreneurship.

The writing is well done and the story is an easy read. It ends up being very engaging; the reader is constantly wondering if Jackson will hit his $8000 goal by the end of the book, if the old neighbor woman will stick to her contract, and if Jackson's siblings and cousins will stick with it long enough to see results. It is a very straightforward story, no twists and turns. I kept waiting for something drastic or dramatic to happen, and it never really does.

This is a wonderful story about taking responsible and making something out of nothing. The story ends well and is mostly positive. There are a few things that were a bit odd; for example a lot of time is spend talking about how sick the kids get from using pesticides to spray the trees and the kids also sustain a number of injuries from the work they do in the orchard. Other than that the story is appropriate for all ages and teaches a wonderful lesson.

Overall a great story that is engaging, well written, and explores valuable lessons for kids. It was pretty outside the genre that I usually read and I still enjoyed it. Definitely a story everyone can relate to, hopefully it will inspire the middle grade reading set to pursue their own dreams of business ownership! show less