Marcelo in the Real World - Hardcover

Stork, Francisco X.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1407121014 ISBN 13: 9781407121017

Publisher: Scholastic, 2011

Synopsis

Marcelo Sandoval has autism and has always attended a special school, an idyllic, protected place. But the summer before high school, his father demands that Marcelo works in his law firm's mailroom in order to experience "the real world". There Marcelo meets Jasmine, beautiful and surprising, and Wendell, the self-satisfied son of another partner in the firm. He learns about competition and jealousy, anger and desire. But it's a picture that he finds in a file - a picture of a girl with a terrible injury - that truly connects him to the real world: its suffering, its injustice, and his place in it.

About this title

Review:

Stork introduces ethical dilemmas, the possibility of love, and other real world conflicts, all the while preserving the integrity of his characterizations and intensifying the novel's psychological and emotional stakes. Not to be missed. -- Publishers Weekly, starred review
Stork delivers a powerful tale populated by appealing (and decidedly unappealing) characters and rich in emotional nuance. -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Writing in a first-person narrative, Stork does an amazing job of entering Marcelo's consciousness and presenting him as a dynamic, sympathetic, and wholly believable character." -- School Library Journal, starred review
It is the rare novel that reaffirms a belief in goodness; rarer still is one that does so this emphatically. -- Horn Book, starred review
Shot with spirtualism, laced with love, and fraught with conundrums, this book, like Marcelo himself, surprises. -- Booklist, starred review
[I]n the skillful hands of Francisco X. Stork, 17-year-old Marcelo Sandoval is the bravest, most original hero I've met in years[A] brisk, brilliant, unsentimental novel -- New York Times
Part coming-of-age story, part mystery and wholly compelling -- Washington Post
While several recent books have used the conceit of an autistic protagonist, this thoughtful novel full of complicated characters is unique. -- Chicago Sun-Times
Stork has written a beautiful study of the loss of innocence, as the questions Marcelo confronts are ones everyone has to grapple with in some form or other -- Los Angeles Times
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About the Author:

Francisco X. Stork is the author of Marcelo in the Real World, winner of the Schneider Family Book Award for Teens and the Once Upon a World Award; The Last Summer of the Death Warriors, which was named to the YALSA Best Fiction for Teens list and won the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award; Irises; and The Memory of Light, which received four starred reviews. He lives near Boston with his wife. You can find him on the web at www.franciscostork.com and @StorkFrancisco.

About this edition

• Publisher: Scholastic
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1407121014
• ISBN 13: 9781407121017
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320