Clutch

Gr 5 Up—After his father dies of a heart attack, Joey Grosser, a young Jewish boy living in post—World War II Montreal, tries to step into his old man's shoes. He takes care of his younger brother and helps his mother run the family store, while also keeping up with school, studying for his upcoming Bar Mitzvah, and running an ever-expanding empire of small businesses in a determined attempt to raise his family out of poverty. Camlot connects this struggle to that of pioneering baseball player Jackie Robinson and his historic run with the Montreal Royals. Joey looks to Robinson as a role model, and while this sense of connection feels legitimate, it is never fully woven into the story, instead coming across as a device that pops up periodically to help move readers through this quiet coming-of-age tale. Joey's obsession with getting his family to the other side of town where the rich folks live—while certainly understandable—begins to feel a bit cliché after a while, primarily because it never seems to grow into any deeper realization. There are a few notable historical references throughout, especially an encounter with a man who lost his entire family to the Holocaust, but overall the book doesn't quite capture the grit of Joey's neighborhood.