by Gary Schmidt
ages: 12+
First sentence: “Joe Pepitone once gave me his New York Yankees baseball cap.”
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I reread this recently for my 6-8th grade book group. And everything I said last time still holds. It’s an amazing book, even if the girls in my group didn’t like it. I think it’s wonderful.

Also this

“Mrs. Daugherty was keeping my bowl of cream of wheat hot, and she had a special treat with it, and she had a special treat with it, she said. It was bananas. 

In the whole history of the world, bananas have never once been a special treat.”

Perfect.