Review Detail

While this is a sad book which made me cry, it also has a healthy does of humor. Brand, Topher and Steve manage to get themselves involved in a lot of realistic trouble. When they skip school, they make sure that they call into the attendance office in a realistic way. When they try to buy a bottle of wine, they approach an older man to say that they are his nephews, and he then runs off with the money. Dangerous? Yes, but something I can see middle school students doing.

The relationship between Ms. Bixby and each boy is slowly revealed. We find out that she is helping Brand through a very difficult time, and why she is so important to Steve and Topher. We also learn a lot about the interplay between the boys, and there are some altercations when they become frustrated with each other. Even briefly mentioned relationships ring true-- when they run into Steve's sister at a McDonald's, Steve deftly counters her threat to tell their overly involved parents with an equally effective threat about her own behavior. This encounter tells us volumes about the family dynamic and adds a layer of depth to the characters.

Anderson tugs at our heartstrings with this one, but he is also true to his own style by inserting guffaw-inducing descriptions of the cheesecake after it has spent time in a backpack, comic chase scenes, and even some terribly sophisticated booger humor. This makes it a perfect book not only for adults who are fond of reading books like Wonder, The One and Only Ivan and Almost Home that require boxes of tissues to be kept at the ready, but also for middle school readers who enjoy slapstick humor. Not many books manage to balance the two, but Ms. Bixby's Last Day does so artfully.

This is almost a reboot of A Begonia for Miss Applebaum, but without the creepy ending and with much better adventures. Yes, I cried buckets. But I laughed, too. THAT, my friends, is good literature!