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Shifty (2008)

by Lynn E. Hazen(Favorite Author)

3.91 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1582462577 (ISBN13: 9781582462578)

languge

English

genre

Young Adult Fiction

publisher

Tricycle Press

review 1: Realistic, contemporary, young adult fiction."Shifty" is the nickname of the main character, so named because he can get out of anything: chores, extra work, and (most of the time) trouble. 15-year-old Soli is in foster care with Little Sister (though she's not really his little sister). They've found a pretty good place with Martha, but there's always the potential for something to go wrong when you're a foster kid. Will Soli manage to stay out of trouble and will Martha manage to hold it together so that Soli and Little Sister can stay?I very much enjoyed this book. It was a fast, punchy read that kept me up until 11:45 because I wanted to finish. Soli's voice and actions felt real and not forced. Unlike many books about foster care and kids, this one isn't horribly depr... moreessing, nor unrealistically perfect. It strikes a good balance between the way things are in the real world and hope for a better future.
review 2: Hazen, Lynn E. 2008. Shifty.Here was a novel that surprised me. The cover didn't necessarily show much promise that I'd love it. And if it hadn't been nominated in the Cybils YA category, I might have missed this one. And that would have been wrong. Because I enjoyed this one. I did. The characters are flawed--very human--but the narrator, Soli, (a.k.a Shifty or Solomon) won me over...and quite quickly at that. He is a fifteen year old guy who is doing the best that he can. He's been in the foster care system for a while now--since he was a preschooler essentially--and it hasn't always treated him fairly. But the place he's at now...is the best he's ever known. And he'll do almost anything to stay there. Martha, his foster mom, may not be good at sticking to all the rules...but she sure does have a heart of gold. Soli isn't her only foster child. There is also Sissy and Chance. (Yes, those are their nicknames.) Chance is a baby that was born drug-addicted.What can I say about this family? I cared. Martha. Soli. Sissy. Their story engaged me in a way that I wasn't expecting. Once I picked this one up, I didn't want to put it down again. less

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