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As Ever, Gordy

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

Gordy couldn't be more unhappy about moving back to his hometown of College Hill, where everybody knows his family's troubled history. In North Carolina, Gordy's life had finally seemed to be on the right track. But in College Hill, Gordy and his sister, June, move into a cramped apartment with their brother Stu and his new family. The principal at Gordy's school immediately has it in for him, his old pals encourage him to cause trouble, and his one-time nemesis, Elizabeth, hates him more than ever. It seems to Gordy as though the whole world is against him. Will he slip back into his old trouble-making ways for good, or will he be able to keep growing into the successful person he was striving to become?

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    • School Library Journal

      July 1, 1998
      Gr 5-8-This sequel to Stepping on the Cracks (1991) and Following My Own Footsteps (1996, both Clarion) continues Gordy Smith's story. After the death of their grandmother in North Carolina, with whom they had been living since their abusive, alcoholic father was arrested, 13-year-old Gordy and his younger sister return to College Hill, MD, to stay with their married older brother Stu. Under his grandmother's firm but loving hand, Gordy had begun to turn his life around. Unfortunately, everyone in College Hill remembers him as a bully. As his anger over his grandmother's death and his new living conditions surfaces, he falls back into his old ways-underachieving in school and playing mischievous pranks. He also finds himself the object of teasing by classmates Margaret and Elizabeth. Perhaps because Gordy is so caught up in his personal problems, it takes much of the book for him to realize that he is attracted to Elizabeth. In the end, they begin a positive relationship. Although Hahn attempts to flesh out the book's post-World War II setting, it is barely evident. Slang words such as "chump" and "dames" and period details such as Frank Sinatra and Hank Williams do not re-create the time for today's children. Readers who already know these characters will be interested in what happens to them, but those meeting Gordy for the first time may not find the book as compelling.-Ellen Fader, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR

    • Booklist

      May 1, 1998
      Gr. 5^-8. When his grandmother suddenly dies, 13-year-old Gordy and his younger sister must move from Grandville back to College Hill to live with their older brother's family. Under his grandmother's steady influence, Gordy had turned his life around, but he soon finds trouble in his old town. Friends egg him into a number of scrapes yet quickly abandon and even betray him. Attracted to his old friend Elizabeth, Gordy wants desperately to impress her but sabotages himself at every turn. Caught in a downward spiral, Gordy seems destined for reform school until his family and Elizabeth reveal how much they care for him. The post^-World War II setting is merely cosmetic, but Gordy is a painfully believable adolescent, angry with the very people who love him and trapped by the town's knee-jerk judgment of his family. A worthy sequel to "Stepping on Cracks" (1991) and "Following My Own Footsteps" (1996), but this also stands well on its own. ((Reviewed May 1, 1998))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1998, American Library Association.)

    • The Horn Book

      July 1, 1998
      After steadying his life under the guardianship of his grandmother in 'Following My Own Footsteps', Gordy's world is again turned upside down when Grandma dies and he and his younger sister return to live in their hometown. Played against a well-rendered post-World War II setting, Gordy's recidivism into his previously wild ways is presented with emotional complexity, as is his love/hate relationship with a female classmate.

      (Copyright 1998 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

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Languages

  • English

Levels

  • ATOS Level:4.6
  • Lexile® Measure:680
  • Interest Level:4-8(MG)
  • Text Difficulty:3

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