Smiles to Go

If you are Will Tuppence, youre concerned about protons, the subatomic particles. Once thought to be indestructible, it has been proven that they can be smashed to smithereens, lose their mass and ultimately disappear. If protons can disappear, what does that say for the world around us?

Will is a thinker. He thinks about everything&the rules of his weekly Monopoly game with Mi-Su and BT, why his five year old neighbor, Korbet, loves his little sister, Tabby, who torments Korbet, why Mi-Su kissed BT, why she kissed Will and what the kiss means, and the uncertainty of everything. Life is one big mental exercise for Will.

But when Tabby gets hurt he realizes that much in the world is not mental, but emotional. This is a big leap for him.

The beauty of Smiles to Go is that it can be read on one level as a story with quirky characters, such as Will, but especially BT who is truly his own person, a difficult thing for a teenager. It is a story that every teenage boy can relate to: how to get the girl, how to ask her out, how to wrangle that first kiss. But on another level, it is a story about an awakening; how Wills mother has to tell him how much he is adored by his younger sister. He thinks his sister gets perverse pleasure in torturing him, rather than this torture being a show of affection. This epiphany changes his entire way of looking at life.

Spinelli is a first class writer. His characters are three dimensional and realistic and funny. The events are interesting. Can you imagine a teenager, Will, talking to a five-year old, Korbet, about love? Its interesting to note that Korbet has a better handle on what love is than does Will. The book is a fast, fun read. Fans of Stargirl and Love, Stargirl will certainly be fans of Smiles to Go. I dare you not to smile while you read it.