Small Steps
Louis Sachar
Hardcover
(Bloomsbury Publishing, Jan. 16, 2006)
Small Steps - Theodore and Rex, aka Armpit and X-Ray; it picks up their stories a couple of years after escape from the Camp Green Lake Juvenile Correctional Facility. They've movedto Austin, Texas Armpit lives with his parents,works for a landscape gardener, digging yet more holes, trying to catch up with the schooling that he's missed. X-Ray drives around Austin in a rusty Honda Civic, making a nuisance of himself. Stanley Yelnats, Armpit has been sent a free case of Sploosh,deodorant invented by Stanley's dad, he sprays it on his feet- armpits every day. Armpit-character. Quiet, kind, honest,condemned to be viewed with suspicion by just about everyone , he has three fatal flaws: he's big, he's black & has a criminal record. People cross the street to avoid brushing past him. Muscle-packed and scary-looking, he's actually a nervous teenager, constantly trying to avoid trouble and tongue-tied by any contact with the most fanciable girl in his class. Armpit has been saving money from his job & banked $800, agrees to invest in one of X-Ray's hare-brained schemes: buying 12 tickets for a concert by teen sensation Kaira DeLeon-touting them for twice the price. Plot, featurs theft, extortion, attempted murder, double-crosses, dodgy deals, a blushing policewoman. Left with two of the tickets, Armpit goes to the concert himself, taking his next-door neighbour, Ginny, - 13-year-old girl with celebral palsy. In an enjoyable piece of wish fulfilment, Ginny and Armpit end up on stage with Kaira. The ensuing romance between Armpit and Kaira feels lightweight.
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