Chicago Typewriter

I cannot resist writing out the ENTIRE opening paragraph of a book that made me laugh out loud uproariously.  It is a short pre-teen book suggested for 8 year olds and up.  If I had known about it as a teacher I would have read it as a quick read aloud to my Junior High students.  Of course read-alouds are supposed to be above a child’s or teen’s reading level but this book is a gem with a character so real and so large I wish I could meet her.

“You wouldn’t think we’d have to leave Chicago to see a dead body.  We were growing up there back in the bad old days of Al Capone and Bugs Moran.  Just the winter before, they’d had the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre over on North Clark Street. The city had such an evil reputation that the Thompson submachine gun as better known as a “Chicago typewriter.”"

For those delicate readers questioning this book's appeal our protagonist's gruff nine year old voice mellows with the book.   It is not, contrary to what appears here, full of violence.   However often it does seem that there is a dearth of great male protagonists in young fiction and this book, though much shorter and not yet a classic, has a protagonist who might have been friends with Huckleberry Finn if they had found themselves in the same era.  Both were fond of stuff that makes legends.

Again if you are an avid reader and want a one hour adventure with two grandkids and their grandma be sure to pick up “A Long Way From Chicago” by Richard Peck, a master storyteller.  This book was the Newberry Honor Book, I loved it so much I am curious to see who those Newberry judges had the gall to give the medal to that year!