My Near-Death Adventures: I Almost Died. Again

Gr 4–6—The year is still 1895 in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, but in DeCamp's follow-up to the "near-death" adventures of the imaginative and spirited hero Stanley Slater, Stan has moved with his mother from a logging camp to a boardinghouse. Stan continues to attract trouble like a magnet—much of it caused by his habit of unconsciously voicing thoughts that would be better left unsaid. As he was in the first novel, Stan is motivated by a powerful urge to connect with his long-lost father and an equally strong interest in preventing his hard-working mother from marrying the wrong man. To help make ends meet, Stanley spends his after-school hours taking care of Cuddy Carlisle, a lovable seven-year-old boy. The scenes featuring the two boys are humorous and warm, conveying that, above all, Stan is a generous and good-hearted kid. While he continues to dream up preposterous money-making schemes (one of which involves actual snake oil), Stan always keeps an eye open for his long-lost father. When a ship comes into town, aptly called the Wanderer, Stan learns that his dad is the captain, but it doesn't take long for him to learn the hard truth about Cap'n Slater: "They move away from him as if he's Moses and they are the Red Sea," he observes about the ship's crew. Enter Stinky Pete, a kind and reliable man from the logging camp. Stanley adores him, and it soon becomes clear that his mother does, too. Like the first volume, this entry features vintage photos and ads from Stan's beloved scrapbook, which contribute to the book's charm.