Oggie Cooder

by Sarah Weeks
PRMS paperback 172 pages
YA friendship / self-esteem

Oggie is a fourth-grade boy with thrift store clothing and a strange talent: he charves (chews / carves) processed cheese. This story is cute and has a good lesson about being yourself. The characters are mostly stereotypes, but Oggie himself is an anachronism. Pretty young for middle school, but might appeal to some sixth graders.

So B. It

by Sarah Weeks
Dakota County library, paperback, 245 pages

Another MHL nominee, this one is about a girl named Heidi whose mother is mentally handicapped. When Heidi was only a week old, they showed up on Bernadette's doorstep and she's been helping them out ever since. But Bernie is agoraphobic and cannot leave her apartment. As Heidi gets older and has more responsibilities, she wants to find out about her mother's past. When she finds some photographs, she gets clues that will take her from Reno to New York.

I liked this book, though it was kind of bittersweet. Heidi is a very realistic character (except for her "luck" - that's a supernatural element) and I found myself wanting her to know the truth. I enjoyed her book "Jumping the Scratch" more than this one, but she gets into kids' heads pretty well.