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    The Absolute Value of Mike
    Unavailable
    The Absolute Value of Mike
    Unavailable
    The Absolute Value of Mike
    Audiobook6 hours

    The Absolute Value of Mike

    Written by Kathryn Erskine

    Narrated by Noah Galvin

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Kathryn Erskine won the National Book Award for her mesmerizing novel Mockingbird. In The Absolute Value of Mike, a young man grows up during an unlikely adventure. Despite his best efforts, Mike has a hard time communicating with his calculus-loving father—and having a math learning disability certainly doesn’t help. But when Mike is sent to Pennsylvania to work on an engineering project, the young man learns valuable lessons from the colorful characters he meets.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books Audio
    Release dateJul 29, 2011
    ISBN9781461849933
    Unavailable
    The Absolute Value of Mike
    Author

    Kathryn Erskine

    Kathryn Erskine is the author of several acclaimed books for young adults and children, including the National Book Award–winning middle grade novel Mockingbird. She lives in Virginia. Visit her website at www.kathrynerskine.com.

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    Reviews for The Absolute Value of Mike

    3.5/5

    10 ratings9 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Thought-provoking and thoroughly enjoyable. Much different in style than Mockingbird, the quirky characters were reminiscent of those you'd find in a Polly Horvath or Wendy Mass novel. Kathy Erskine blends humor and poignancy with ease.
    • 2/5
      too quirky could not get into this one
    • 3/5
      Odd and entertaining story populated with eccentric characters which are a bit over the top.
    • 3/5
      I wanted to love this book. Well written. Clever dialogue. Ultimately dull. Oh, well.
    • 3/5
      This is a well paced book following the free-wheeling Mike, son of a mathematical genius who can't let along doesn't want to follow in his father's footsteps. Sent away to stay with distant relations for th summer, Mike learns alot about himself, his strengths, and the power of family. The book is written well enough and it reads quickly with a nice rythym. The characters have a minalmial development but enought to give them each appeal. The book is sound but one cannot help but feel it is was written by someone trying too hard to appeal to the ideal demographic. The author includes enough dialougge, visuals, and plot points to appeal to the young adult market albeit with some awkwardness. The text does feel as if it were reaching at times and there are section that smack of pandering. Overall, it is a strong effort but it lacks real emotional punch. Many issues are glossed over and the main character is essentialial given a carte blanche for poor behavior. He acknowledges it but it often up to others to adjust to Mike's point of view instead of compromise.
    • 4/5
      Mike has been sent to stay with his great aunt and uncle whilst his father is in Romania. His father is a maths genius (but hopeless at practical things) and wants Mike to help with his great uncle's project - an artesian screw - to improve his maths . However, when Mike arrives he discovers the project is something else completely. Faced with some seemingly insurmountable problems Mike finally discovers what he really is good at.Although this book touches on some big issues the story is very funny and the characters very likeable. This book would suit someone age 10 and up who enjoys realistic fiction.
    • 4/5
      Mike's father James is an engineering professor and mathematical genius, who will be spending the summer teaching in Romania. But he can't bring Mike, so he sends him off to rural Pennsylvania to stay with great-aunt Moo and great-uncle Poppy for six weeks. Poppy is supposed to be working on building an artesian screw and water turbine, and James decides that experience will help Mike learn more about math -- even though Mike has dyscalculia and feels hopeless about ever learning enough math to please his father. Mike discovers that Poppy and Moo are in dire need of financial help, and are barely able to take care of themselves, but the tiny town where they live is full of people who help out whenever they can. In fact, the whole town is focused on helping the Reverend Karen Valentine raise enough money to travel to Romania and adopt a little boy named Misha. Mike has a summer full of new experiences, new friends, and unexpected problems to solve... but very few of his "engineering" problems involve math. Wonderful realistic fiction, 6th grade and up.
    • 4/5
      The Short of It:Laugh-out-loud funny.The Rest of It:When his father takes a teaching job in Romania for the summer, fourteen-year-old Mike is sent to a town he affectionately calls, “Do Over” so he can stay with his grand-aunt and uncle known only as Moo and Poppy.Moo and Poppy have their own issues. They’ve recently lost their grown son Doug, and Poppy spends his days sitting in his chair, staring at the TV and eating nothing but Scrapple. Sitting in a chair all day wouldn’t be too bad, but there’s a project that the entire town is relying on Poppy for, and he’s in no shape to complete it. Having no other choice, Mike steps in to save the day.There are some very serious issues contained within its pages, but The Absolute Value of Mike addresses them with humor. The small town feel and the relationship between the town’s inhabitants is at times laugh-out-loud funny, but also very sweet.I had just begun to read this when The Boy took it out of my hands. He is not a reader, but after reading the opening paragraph, he declared that he would read it after me. Wha?? The Boy said he wants to read it? Wha?? It took a moment for that to settle in.Isn’t that saying something though? This is clean tween reading. No vamps or zombies here. Just Porch Pals, a car named Tyrone and a Romanian orphan looking for a home. Although it’s geared towards tweens, I enjoyed it too.Erskine’s name might sound familiar to you and that would be because she also wrote Mockingbird, which I liked very much. The Absolute Value of Mike is an Amazon Best Book of the Month and has been chosen by Indie booksellers for the Summer 2011 Kids’ Next List.
    • 4/5
      Mike's father has to go away for the summer. So he ships Mike off to stay with his great aunt and uncle, Moo and Poppy, who have recently lost their son. Mike finds himself taking care of Moo and Poppy, and helping the town in its efforts to raise money to adopt an orphan from Romania.