My Life, Take Two

In Many's (These Are the Rules) humorous and, at times, tender novel, 16-year-old narrator Neal Thackeray has the summer to make a documentary to pass his film class. His girlfriend, ""Emily-No-Nonsense-Straight-Up-Front-Johnston,"" would rather he think about business school and condominiums, and his mother just hopes he can hold a summer job. But Neal finds film exciting, especially when it allows him to revisit murky memories of his late father. The only person he can really talk to is Claire, a free spirit whose family owned the estate where his father worked. When he learns that her family might be forced to put the estate up for sale, Neal decides to use the property as his documentary subject. By returning to the grounds, he hopes he may be able to figure out the man his father was. While readers will find Neal instantly likable, his narration is full of clunky sarcastic asides that distract from the plot (e.g., after Neal gives readers a random pop quiz, he says, ""Did you choose `d'? You win one of these fine plastic kazoos""). Other devices, however, such as Neal's flashbacks to times with his dad--and especially his description of the funeral parlor--or the film storyboards that open many of the chapters, are handled more skillfully. They work to demonstrate both the depth of Neal's longing for closure with his father and his changing perspective on the world as his interest in filmmaking grows. Ages 12-up. (May).