Erskine, Kathryn.

THE ABSOLUTE VALUE OF MIKE

New York : Philomel Books, 2011

IL 5-8 , RL 3.5

ISBN 0399255052

     

Mike has dyscalculia, a math disability, but his brilliant mathematician father does not understand, and sends Mike to help his Great Uncle Poppy work on an Artesian Screw engineering project that might help him get into a math magnet school.  When Mike arrives in Donover or “Do Over” as all the locals call it, things are not as he expected.  The Greats are having financial problems, the electricity is off, Poppy is so depressed over the death of his son that he does not talk or move from his chair, and Moo is trying to cope while dealing with vision problems and there is no artesian screw project.  Mike is pulled into coordinating the town project of helping the local minister adopt Misha, a Romanian orphan.  They have three weeks to raise $40,000.  Read this book to see how Mike, with the help of a homeless man, a Goth singer, Poppy and Moo, and the rest of the town come together to bring Misha home. 
(Booktalk by the Sequoya Youth Book Award committee, 2014)