Horn Book (Fri Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2011)

Twelve-year-old Milo is starting seventh grade at a new school. He's also beginning to deal with his mother's death a few years earlier; slipped in among droll descriptions of everyday life (e.g., lunch seating, the hell of gym class) are poignant memories. Leavened with wry cartoons throughout, it's a rich and real story of grief and growing up.

Kirkus Reviews

Seventh grader Milo Cruikshank narrates and illustrates an up-and-down year in yet another new school. He works his way through a crush and finds both friends who share his interests and an adult he can talk to about the ways he still misses his mom, who died two years earlier. Looking at the cover and even reading the first two chapters won't prepare readers for the emotional content of this moving book. Milo's mother's death left a gaping, silent hole in his family. Over the course of the year he finds a way to fill that void, get his father and older sister talking about her again and say goodbye properly. The accessible text is full of cartoons illustrating and occasionally carrying the action; Milo makes lists, too. Close to failing math, socially inept and awkward with girls, even one who simply wants to be a friend, he is easy to care about. Middle-school readers will find his school life familiar and painfully funny, but they may be surprised by the poignancy of his story. (Fiction. 10-14)

School Library Journal (Wed Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2010)

Gr 5-8 By page 14, readers will know that this is more than just another funny story about a middle school misfit who is the new kid in the neighborhood. While Milo does struggle with all the normal tween anxieties and self-consciousness about his family, there is more. Silberberg details the daily events with Wimpy Kid -like drawings and quick-witted humor that will keep the pages turning. Milo's new friendships with classmates Marshall and Hillary and elderly neighbor Sylvia Poole allow readers to glimpse at the deeper truthMilo's mother's deathas it emerges between laugh lines. Silberberg takes on a tough topic and always stays true to the age of the character through dialogue and artwork while maintaining that wisecracking, 12-year-old humor. Added to this, he manages to convey Milo's pain and fears without ever becoming maudlin or depressing. Those familiar with Silberberg's Pond Scum (Hyperion, 2005) will recognize the similar style of writing. Yet with Milo , the author embraces a core childhood fear, molding the humor with poignancy to create a profound slice of one boy's life.— Tina Hudak, St. Albans School, Washington, DC