cover image How I Survived My Summer Vacation: And Lived to Write the Story

How I Survived My Summer Vacation: And Lived to Write the Story

Robin Friedman. Cricket Books, $15.95 (192pp) ISBN 978-0-8126-2738-1

In Friedman's humorous first novel, 13-year-old aspiring writer Jackie Monterey plans to spend his summer writing a novel--but can't get past the opening line. It doesn't help that he keeps getting distracted: his pals Garus and Nick persuade him to join the swim team, then drag him along to hunt for a Playboy magazine or explore a sewer pipe; his best friend, Mallory, falls for a poetry-reciting member of the rival swim team; and when his ""first-ever girlfriend"" comes over for dinner, his New Age book publishing parents scare her off with their inedible soy-based menu and a bestselling author guest who recites an ""ancient circle of prayers."" After a few dozen attempts at film noir and science fiction, Jackie finally takes his dad's advice to ""write what you know"" and trades in his unfinished novels for an essay about his summer vacation, which he quickly cranks out, and it wins first prize in an essay competition. The book's funny moments and tender lessons occasionally get buried beneath stilted characters, such as Garus, who uses a forced English accent, or Mallory, who speaks in clunky abbreviations (""I'm s.h.i.c.e.a.h.,"" she says, meaning ""I'm so hungry I could eat a horse""). But Friedman's comic timing along with her insights are what readers will remember. Ages 12-up. (June)