Review: Eddie Whatever
Eddie Whatever by Lois Ruby Carolrhoda Books (imprint of Lerner Publishing Group) Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Shirley Reva Vernick Buy at Bookshop.org For his bar mitzvah project, 13-year-old Eddie Lewin volunteers at the Silver Brook retirement home, where the residents call him “Eddie Whatever” rather than bothering to remember his last name. Eddie expects his “sentence” to be a bore, but at least his friend/crush Tessa is volunteering there too. Soon, the resident seniors topple Eddie’s assumptions about the dullness of elderly people. Their lives are filled with secrets, courtships, the rumor of a vengeful ghost, and drama over repeated robberies. When Eddie gets blamed for the thefts, he and Tessa work together to solve the riddles at Silver Brook. Filled with humor, poignancy and mystery, Eddie Whatever explores the realities of aging in a fast-paced story that will draw in middle-grade readers. And there’s more. When Eddie learns that one of the resid...