Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Ship Out of Luck by Neal Shusterman

I am a huge Neal Shusterman fan and I especially love his books about Antsy Bonano (The Schwa Was Here and Antsy Does Time). So of course I read this the minute I saw it at The Little Shop of Stories. It did not disappoint. Antsy Bonano is a teenage boy with a fantastic first-person voice. He's awkward, hilarious, and usually good-hearted. He always manages to turn believably introspective (without being preachy), which makes his stories more substantive than they appear at first glance. This time Mr. Crawley takes Antsy's family on a luxury cruise and Antsy meets up with a cute stowaway who involves him in a majorly illegal scheme to help some people in need. Antsy doesn't intend to become an international criminal and YouTube sensation, but it happens. His friends Lexie and Howie are also there, and having some life-changing experiences of their own that all come together in the end. It's not necessary to read the other Antsy books (but I highly highly recommend reading Antsy Does Time because it is such a fantastic read). Ship Out of Luck is a thoroughly enjoyable and recommended to 7th-10th graders.

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