Notes from the Midnight Driver

Come ride along with Alex. Frustrated by his parent's divorce, Alex "borrows" his mother's car to pay a surprise visit to his father, who just happens to be dating Alex's former third-grade teacher. To work up the courage for this visit, Alex has had a bit too much to drink. His midnight drive ends in the neighbor's yard and involves a decapitated lawn gnome and vomit on a police officer's shoes. Community service at a nursing home is Alex's punishment. His mother arranges for him to spend time with Sol, a resident in the facility where she works. Sol is the most contrary patient at the home, and he outdoes himself in making Alex miserable. Alex's complaints to the judge handling his case are dismissed with comments about how Alex and Sol will be good for each other and can both learn from the experience. Alex and Sol do find they have a few things in common. When Alex brings his guitar along one day, he discovers Sol likes jazz and finds the old man does have knowledge to share. As the visits continue the two develop an unusual friendship. NOTES FROM THE MIDNIGHT DRIVER is Jordan Sonnenblick's second book. For any fans out there, Sonnenblick ties this new book to his first, DRUMS, GIRLS, AND DANGEROUS PIE, by bringing back several characters. Also, as in his first book, Sonnenblick works in a little romance along with music and some great humor. He captures the zany, frustrating emotional roller-coaster of the teenage experience. Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"

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As described

I remember borrowing the hardcover edition in our school library when I was in high school. And I dubbed thee as my favorite Jordan Sonnenblick book that I've read. So I saw the audiobook CD on sale in Amazon (for less than $5, I think), and I thought why not give it a go again. Reading this again as an adult, didn't change how much I liked it. I still think it was well written, I still think the characters are awesome, and so on, and so forth. Okay, I have to admit, I did find some parts are cheesy now that I reread it as an adult. But I think it's just my oldness showing! LOL! What I liked most about this book is that this was written when I was a teen (that was about twelve years ago), and yet reading it now still doesn't make any difference. What I mean is, it's still relevant if I read it now, or if I read it later twenty years from now. This book has achieved being timeless. It's still going to be a great book even if my future kids would read it. And I always applaud books that makes themselves immortal through time. I also just want to give props to the narrator for all the Polish/Yiddish pronunciations that I can never get right. He also definitely gave such awkward realistic emotions to Alex. Very well done! Other than that, just read (or listen) to it yourself to realize how awesome this book is. I definitely agree to this book being a "Tuesdays with Morrie for teens." But sometimes, I think it's such a different thing.

Für mich eins der schönsten englischsprachigen Jugendbücher in diesem Jahrtausend. Alex, 16, will sich an seinem Vater rächen. Der ist nämlich zur ehemaligen Klassenlehrerin seines Sohnes gezogen unter Hinterlassung seiner Hausbar und diverser anderer, nicht weiter nennenswerter Gegenstände. Mama hat Dating-Plattformen für sich entdeckt. Und so entschließt sich Alex eines Abends, Papas Bar leerzusaufen, Mamas Auto zu klauen und dem Herrn Erzeuger mal ordentlich die Meinung zu geigen. Teil 1 des Plans gelingt. Teil 2 endet im Garten der Nachbarin, in den Alex mit Mutters Auto gekracht ist und dabei den 500-Dollar-Gartenzwerg geköpft hat. Chaos. Polizei. Rettungswagen. Krankenhaus. Alkoholvergiftung. Gehirnerschütterung. Streitende Eltern. Hausarrest. Und am Ende eine Gerichtsverhandlung, in der Alex zu 100 Arbeitsstunden in einem Seniorenpflegeheim verdonnert wird. Da soll er sich um den granteligen Sol Lewis kümmern... Was dann passiert, solltet ihr selbst lesen. Es ist witzig, macht nachdenklich, teils auch traurig und dann wieder heiter. Wunderbar.

My 14-year-old son who is NOT a reader chose this from his assigned summer-reading list because he knew it was about a young guy taking a drive. My son SO wants to drive!!! He and I started reading it together, he reading from his paperback and me following along on my Kindle. First of all, I must say that the first words out of his mouth after he read the last words of the book were, "That was a good book!" I nearly fainted...with joy, of course, not just because he read an entire book and enjoyed it (although I was ecstatic!) but because he enjoyed reading a book with such substance. This book is not about sports or music. Well, actually it has a music aspect too which he certainly found interesting...but this book touches on some very pertinent issues facing young people today---dealing with divorcing parents, under-age drinking, taking care of and showing respect to the elderly, taking responsibility for our actions as well as accepting the consequences of them. It was written in such a inspiring yet humorous way that I wish every young person could do what we did and sit down and read this book together. It naturally lead us to talking about these topics and more. If I had tried to bring up under-age drinking on my own, I doubt that we would have had such a calm and honest dialogue. I intend for my 11-year-old son and me to read it together also. Thank you to the author for writing it and the Literature teachers at my son's high school for choosing such a great book! "Gotcha!" (You have to read the book to understand that one!! (By the way, this is the first book review that I have ever written even though I read a lot!!)