My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park

by Steve Kluger

Book Overview

Best friends and unofficial brothers since they were six, ninth-graders T.C. and Augie have got the world figured out. But that all changes when both friends fall in love for the first time. Enter Al,. She's pretty, sassy, and on her way to Harvard. T.C. falls hard, but Al, is playing hard to get. Meanwhile, Augie realizes that he's got a crush on a boy. It's not so clear to him, but to his family and friends, it's totally obvious! Told in alternating...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0142413437
• ISBN13: 9780142413432
• Release Date: February 2009
• Publisher: Speak
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 0.96 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.6" x 8.2"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

One of my best of 2008 books

This was a book that definitely and swiftly made my list of favorites for 2008. It's full of warmth, heart and most of all laughs. After reading it (one-sitting), I knew it was one of those books that you've just got to share with someone, so I lent it out and sure enough, the friend had to keep it. Needless to say, I've bought about 10 more copies for friends and family. In Last Days of Summer and Almost Like Being in Love, I got hooked on Kluger's writing and his great characters; with My Most Excellent Year, I became a full-fledged fanatic. This is definitely one you won't be able to put down, and one you'll wish didn't have to end.

THREE GENERATIONS ARE LOVING IT

My father read it, my niece read it, and I read it--and it's all we've talked about at dinner for the last two weekends. My father loved all of the baseball references, my niece fell in love with both of the boys in the story, and I was amazed at how deeply moved I was by how much the parents cared for their kids. Not to mention the laughs and coming to remember that ANYthing's possible as long as your heart's behind it. Our library has this one shelved in general fiction AND a second copy in teen fiction. Now I understand why.

Great For The Whole Family

If this were in a movie store, it would be in the romantic comedy section; but that would be selling it well short. There are three narrators who are juniors in high school writing an essay on each of their "Most Excellent Years". The essays are constructed in letters with some e-mails thrown in. The "excellent year for each is the same year as they are three great friends who bonded in their freshman year of high school. There is T.C. the all-around cool kid whose mother died when he was six. Most of his letters are to his mother (who was ideal and very cool). There is Augie, who is coming out as a homosexual - something every knows about before he does - who letters are to the "diva of the week". Lastly, Alejandre is the smart, pretty diplomat's daughter/belle who is the object of T.C.'s romantic designs. Then Hucky gets introduced as the year goes along. He is a six year old deaf boy who believes in Mary Poppins and is taken under wing by the three friends. This is a wonderful storing of bonding on many levels - friendships, teenage love, parents/children, teenagers/young boy. It is also a novel of ambitions and desires and what is important in life. There is great humor in this book. For those who loved, as I did, "The Last Days of Summer", the humor is deeper and not on every page, but is still frequent and terrific. One of the other great aspects of this book (really, a five star book deserves this many superlatives) is that the entire family can enjoy it. It is getting passed around my family - 15, 17 and wife as I write this. All the characters have depth, which is necessary for any book centered around relationships. There is not a weak character in the book - and there are a lot of characters as is appropriate for three teenagers. If they are a bit idealized, who cares? Every character in the book is someone you would love to know and whom you will love getting to know page by page. I wish the book had been another hundred pages.

Something for Everyone

Kluger, Steve. "My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins and Fenway Park", Dial, 2008. Something for Everyone Amos Lassen It's the end of the semester and I am right in the middle of grading my students' final papers. I always like to read something light when I am under a lot of pressure and when I found "My Most Excellent Year", I knew I could finish my work quickly. Here is a book that you can't help but love--it's very real, very funny and touching. It made me remember what it was like being a teenager. I remember loving the theater as does the hero of this book. The main characters are three kids in Brookline, Massachusetts who love school plays, their families and friends and each other. I will not spoil the fun by giving away any of the plot but I will say this is a feel good book that will bring back memories.