Pay Attention, Carter Jones

by Gary D. Schmidt

Book Overview

Bestselling author Gary D. Schmidt tells a coming-of-age story with the light touch of The Wednesday Wars, the heart of Okay for Now, and the unique presence of a wise and witty butler.

Carter Jones is astonished early one morning when he finds a real English butler, bowler hat and all, on the doorstep--one who stays to help the Jones family, which is a little bit broken.

In addition to figuring out middle school,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0544790855
• ISBN13: 9780544790858
• Release Date: February 2019
• Publisher: Clarion Books
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.79 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 8.4"
• Age Range: 10 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 7

Customer Reviews

Beautiful story

I absolutely loved this story. Schmidt has a knack for wisely, gently and beautifully dealing with the heartbreak in childhood in a hopeful, redeeming way. He reflects on the failures of adults, while not bashing adults--in every story there is someone who is that loyal, faithful, and reliable adult that serves to help the main character work through hard things in life. He artfully develops his characters--we can all relate to them in some way, and learn with and from them. His stories are entertaining--laugh out loud--while also poignant. This one captured me and kept me up later than I intended just to see it through to the satisfying, heart-warming end.

Depressing

We ended up not giving this to our kids. There is sibling death, parental abandonment, etc. just not the heavy load we care to unload on our pre-teen.