After 11th-grader Alex crashes his car and decapitates a gnome (all while under the influence) he’s assigned to 100 hours of community service to pay for his transgressions. Little does Alex know that those 100 hours are going to feel like a whole lot more, because he’s just been assigned to visit the crankiest geezer on the planet—Solomon Lewis, who doesn’t know about Alex’s transgression, but who has a few of his own. It may not come as much of a surprise that these two end up forming an unlikely bond, but what both Alex and Sol learn from their friendship makes for an anything-but-predictable ending to this humorous and bittersweet story.
Genre: Fiction (YA) Jenny’s rating (out of 5 stars): 4.5 You’ll like this book if: You’re a sucker for stories that tackle real-life lessons with humor. You won’t like this book if: Immature teenage guys bug you.