MY BROTHER'S KEEPER
Patricia McCormick
Hyperion Books for Children
Fiction
ISBN: 0786851732
192 pages

Toby Malone is having an exceptionally bad year. He worries about everything: having to take a sex-ed class at school, trying out for the baseball team, determining whether Martha MacDowell is looking at him in a funny, pathetic kind of way or in an interested kind of way, and the gray hair sprouting out of his head. Toby is especially worried about his dad, who left the family after losing his job at the factory. He hasn't heard from him in so long that he's beginning to think he might never return.

And if that isn't enough to deal with, there's Toby's older brother Jake, who is getting into serious trouble with drugs. Unlike Toby's dad, Jake does come home, but at very late hours and is stoned. He doesn't seem to care about the things that he used to care about, like being a star player on his baseball team. And he's hanging out with the local drug dealer --- and starting to steal.

Toby feels that his mom has enough to worry about (like the unpaid bills), so he is taking it upon himself to clean up after Jake's messes, to come up with excuses for why he's late and why he's sick. He finds a bit of solace in looking at his prized baseball card, the one he wishes he could show his dad, but Toby isn't sure how much longer he can cover for his brother. And just maybe this load is a little to heavy for Toby's shoulders to carry alone.

Talented author Patricia McCormick does a superb job in telling Toby's tale. She approaches this serious subject matter honestly and believably, easing through it with humorous side stories and a fast-moving plot. Everyone will benefit from and enjoy reading this novel.

   --- Reviewed by Chris Shanley-Dillman, author

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