Sauerkraut
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
A new quirky-funny book from the author of Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer about a boy whose plans for the summer go sideways when the ghost of his great-great-grandmother demands his attention.
HD Schenk is a maker--an inventor, someone who builds cool stuff. He's got a plan for the summer: he'll build his own computer and enter it in the county fair. Then everyone will know who he is and what he can do.
To earn enough money for the parts he'll need, HD has promised to clear out his uncle's overflowing basement. No big deal, right? But there's more in that basement than HD bargained for. On his first trip down there, a voice only he can hear starts talking to him. About...sauerkraut?
Who knew the ghost of his great-great-grandmother was haunting an old pickling crock? She's got a grand plan, too. She wants HD to help make her famous recipe for sauerkraut and enter it in the county fair so that she can be declared pickle queen.
After some initial shock, HD is willing enough to help. This ghost is family, after all. But only HD can really see and hear his Oma, which is going to make it hard for her to win on her own...
Kelly Jones spins a wonderfully goofy ghost tale that celebrates creative problem solving, family ties, and makers of every variety.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The hero of this funny, kindhearted novel is HD Schenk, a 12-year-old self-proclaimed "black geek" he's a biracial German-American who dreams of building his own computer with help from his understanding parents, his best friend Eli, and others in his small town. His summer takes a turn when he discovers an old pickling crock among his late grandmother's belongings. "All pickling crocks are haunted," says a local mystery writer. Enter Marietta, the ghost of his German great-great-grandmother, who has an agenda of her own: get other to make her famous sauerkraut and win the title of Pickle Queen at the county fair. Jones weaves identity into the story seamlessly, and offers a model for incidental representation: the diverse cast of characters (including HD's disabled veteran father and gay uncles, and Eli, who grapples with a learning difference), encounter casual racism as well as brief ableism and homophobia, but these incidents are more like bumps in the road than central plot points, and HD and company confront them swiftly and effectively. Jones's nimbly constructed plot features no adversary beyond competing needs for time and attention in a happy family, and it doesn't bother with the usual conflicts about who can see the ghost (everyone, eventually). Celebrating the collision of old and new worlds, this simple but smart saga will appeal to kids who like their ghost stories more sweet than sour. Ages 8 12.
