It's 1969. It's Massapequa, New York. The Vietnam War is on the nightly news. Men are 
getting ready to step onto the moon for the first time. Her best friend is gone, without a trace, and ten year old Tammy is ticked off. Aroooo! To top it all off, Muscle Man (Douglas) McGinty, the worst liar in the world, is now living with her friend's former foster "grandma" and none of the neighborhood gang can see how awful he is. He tells them he's in training for the Munich Olympics--they believe him! He tells them he can beat them at kickball--him against all of them--and they keep cutting him slack. He says that Neil Armstrong is his uncle--Oh Please! But when he says that he can get a letter to her friend through his connections at the Foster Care program, Tammy gives it a try, with frustrating and enlightening results...
getting ready to step onto the moon for the first time. Her best friend is gone, without a trace, and ten year old Tammy is ticked off. Aroooo! To top it all off, Muscle Man (Douglas) McGinty, the worst liar in the world, is now living with her friend's former foster "grandma" and none of the neighborhood gang can see how awful he is. He tells them he's in training for the Munich Olympics--they believe him! He tells them he can beat them at kickball--him against all of them--and they keep cutting him slack. He says that Neil Armstrong is his uncle--Oh Please! But when he says that he can get a letter to her friend through his connections at the Foster Care program, Tammy gives it a try, with frustrating and enlightening results...
First-time author Nan Marino has created a story that will resonate with kids and adults alike, showing a time period spilling over with real kids, real situations, real heartache, and real growth. With a deft hand, she has the reader rooting for the "good" guy and the "bad" guy, and showing us, wisely, that there's a bit of both in all of us.
This book is a keeper and a Newbery contender!
Rating: 5 out of 5
To suggest other titles to the committee, please email newberysuggestions@kcls.org .
Normally we hear this kind story from the perspective of a really good kid--the hero or the kid who's being picked on. But the fact that Tamara, who is kind of a bully, tells the story makes it interesting. The reader gets an inside look at why she does what she does (the mean stuff included). It was a good idea for author Nan Marino to write through a character who at times isn't very likable. It's a challenge to the reader and it sets the book apart from others like it.
There are a lot of what we call "issues" in this book: loss, death, bad parents, class differences. I think, though, that the issue that stood out to me is why it's sometimes better to lie than tell the truth (which is a lesson Tamara really needs to learn). The book doesn't spell it out too overtly, which I liked.
This book has a very strong sense of time and references to quintessentially 1960s things, and the way in which the characters relate to each other is very interesting. There's the tension of Tamara's big brother, a college student who is preparing to go to Woodstock, butting heads with their conservative father. Tamara's own relationship with her parents is so distant that she refers to them by their first names in conversations with others. Tamara's deepest conversation with her mother involves her mother teaching her how much can be learned about human behavior by watching soap operas.
But the greatest source of Tamara's ire, as Beth notes, is the very presence of Muscle Man (aka Douglas) McGinty, an unrepentant liar who can never replace her best friend, Tammy. It's striking to read about how diligently Douglas lies simply to be accepted, to be liked, and how determined Tamara is to dislike him. I'm not sure how much I bought into this idea of such a skilled liar turning out to be such a nice kid, but this story certainly has a lot going for it.
Rating: 4 out of 5
I wanted to like this book as much as you all did...but just couldn't. I didn't like the main characters enough to feel much about their situations. Perhaps I was not in the right place for it when I picked it up...
I had the same experience as Jennifer. I never really believed Tamara's motivation for being that upset about her friend leaving. It was only the other children that made the book bearable to me. It felt like there was some more back story about the parents that was edited out, so that fell flat for me as well.
I did find the setting and secondary characters to be well written, and the Vietnam/tree planting scene with Douglas was very powerful written.
Score: 4 out of 5
This book is very exciting. Just the gyst of the story is exciting. Having a girl like Tamara, who doesn't like the new kid in town. That conflict makes this book a can't put down book. It is one of my favorite books.
This book was very funny, but also a little bit upsetting. There was one part that really got me excited.I can't tell it to you, but it was at the end of the book. The scene is really amazing, because of the way Nan Marino described how Tammy feels, and how she reacts to stuff that she figures out. The book was very interesting, not the best I have read, but it was good.
RATING: 7/10
THIS BOOK WAS AWESOME!It was entertaining all the way through and ended in a great way. Nice plot to. :)
I really liked this book because the plot thickens the more you read it. This book teaches you that lying will never get you anywhere in life
This book was one of the est books i have ever read. this book was a page turner for me. each sentence diescribed every single little peice of it, I loved this book and I hope people agree with me. This book was funny, problems were intreguing and had a very good ending. All through the book i could picture a HD movine in my head. one again this book was AWESOME!
Rating:5 out of 5
This is a heart-warming story. About a girl whos friend moved away 42 days before. And now has no friends that are nice to her. And the new person living where her best friend used to live lies about everything. And nobody care about the lies and can't even tell that he is lying so when he says he can beat everyone in the neighborhood in kickball by hiself it is ON. It is her one chance to tell everyone that he is lying. But he turns out to be her friend in the end.
This book is bad. This is my #1 dont read book