This is another Red Cedar book for this year.
I wasn’t really sure about this book at first. Rex starts out doing something that I knew was going to get him in trouble. That is the problem with being a grown up reading children’s books. You see the consequences and cringe – either that or you worry yourself silly over the mess these characters can get themselves into.
Thankfully, by the time I finished this book, I loved it and remembered how much I liked the first book in the series.
The Rex series is set in the 1960’s in Ottawa. While I am sure kids won’t always get the references to pop culture icons like Paul Anka, it does reveal what life was like in those times.
Rex has moved 8 times in his 12 years. In this tale, he and his family are moving again. Only this time, it is just across town, and Rex decides he doesn’t want to move schools. The family moves in the summer and his transcripts are already sent to the new school, so Rex decides to lie to his parents, and go where he can be with his friends. His life gets very complicated as he pretends to go to his new school, but instead scrounges money to takes the two buses every day to and from school across town. To make his life even more difficult, the school bully has it in for him.
At home, where Rex is one of eight children, life is crazy. His sister Annie is dealing with problems of her own and mixing up evil concoctions in the garage. His mother has taken to smoking in the garden.
I’m not going to spoil the story for you, but before it all over, Rex ends up having to go to his new school, makes peace (more or less) with the bully, and eventually, realizes how lucky he is to be in the family he is in.
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