Also Known as Elvis

by James Howe

Overview

Skeezie Tookis has a life-changing summer in this fourth book of the funny, heartfelt, and beloved Misfits series by Bunnicula author James Howe.

I started wearing my dad’s leather jacket that he left hanging in the closet. I nabbed it right before my mom was going to toss it in the trash. She hated that I wore that jacket, but it’s what I have left of my dad.

Skeezie—also known as Elvis for the black leather jacket that he never takes off—isn’t looking forward to the summer after seventh grade. While his best friends Bobby, Joe, and Addie have exciting adventures, he’s stuck babysitting his sisters and working at the Candy Kitchen. True, he gets to hang out with the awesome Steffi, but he still has to contend with his maybe-crush on hot-and-cold Becca and Kevin Hennessey’s never-ending bullying. When his dad suddenly reappears, it’s another sign that this will be the worst summer ever.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442445123
Publisher:	Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	04/15/2014
Series:	James Howe's Misfits Series
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	968,044
Lexile:	780L (what's this?)
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

James Howe is the author of more than ninety books for young readers. Bunnicula, coauthored by his late wife Deborah and published in 1979, is considered a modern classic of children’s literature. The author has written six highly popular sequels, along with the spinoff series Tales from the House of Bunnicula and Bunnicula and Friends. Among his other books are picture books such as Horace and Morris but Mostly Dolores and beginning reader series that include the Pinky and Rex and Houndsley and Catina books. He has also written for older readers. The Misfits, published in 2001, inspired the nationwide antibullying initiative No Name-Calling Week, as well as three sequels, Totally Joe, Addie on the Inside, and Also Known as Elvis. A common theme in James Howe’s books from preschool through teens is the acceptance of difference and being true to oneself. Visit him online at JamesHowe.com.

Read an Excerpt

1. FORUM: “What I’ll Be Doing on My Summer Vacation”
The truth, Little E? The truth is, I didn’t have a clue what I was going to do that summer, but I was pretty sure there were some things I wasn’t likely to be doing:

1. go on vacation with my family
2. spend any time with my dad
3. have fun

My mom (your future grandma) had already told me that she needed me to help out even more than usual with my sisters because she’d taken on a second job, and she wanted me to get a job because my dad was behind in his payments and times were tough. How was I going to tell that to the gang? I mean, I could pretty much tell them anything, but when Bobby was sitting there going on about being best buds with his dad and everybody was talking about the fantastic vacations they were going to take with their families, well, I hope you can appreciate—as much as it’s possible for anybody to appreciate anything before they’ve even been born—how hard it was for me to be honest.

And that’s the other part of the truth: There were things I wasn’t being honest about with my friends. I’d never let them know just how bad things had gotten at home. I’d stopped inviting them over. I didn’t want them to see that I wasn’t the same Skeezie at home as the Skeezie they knew and loved in the outside world. I didn’t want them to see my mom and me go at it, which we were doing more and more.

Like that day, when I got home from the Candy Kitchen.

Editorial Reviews

05/01/2014
Gr 5–8—In this final book in the series, Skeezie Tookis looks back 12 years to the summer he was 13, when his mother, struggling to raise him and his two sisters alone, insists he get a job to help out. Skeezie hires on at the Candy Kitchen, favorite hangout of the Gang of Five, forming a special friendship with 19-year-old waitress Steffie, who nicknames him Elvis. Slicking back his hair and wearing his deadbeat dad's black leather motorcycle jacket are Skeezie's way of holding on to him, even as his anger over his father's desertion consumes him. When his dad turns up in Paintbrush Falls, Skeezie must face his ambivalent feelings head on: while his mother and sisters are hoping for a reconciliation, his father's plan is to seek a divorce so he can remarry and take Skeezie with him to his new life in Rochester. With his three best friends away on vacation, Skeezie is on his own as he grapples with his decision to stay or leave. Howe skillfully blends humor and pathos, effectively conveying the protagonist's conflicted feelings, even through his wisecracks, and his characterization is robust and nuanced. Skeezie narrates the story to his soon-to-be-born son, and readers learn at the outset, as they did in the conclusion of The Misfits (S. & S., 2001), how things turned out for the Gang of Five, but knowing doesn't lessen the impact of this compelling story. A most fitting and satisfying conclusion.—Marie Orlando, formerly at Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY

School Library Journal

04/28/2014
This thoughtful conclusion to the Misfits series begins with Skeezie as an adult, an expectant father reflecting on his summer between seventh and eighth grade. Skeezie's letters to his young self, aka "Little E," are sprinkled throughout the narrative, providing moments of quiet wisdom. At age 13, as Skeezie's friends take off in different directions to exciting vacation destinations, he stays put with drearier prospects: babysitting his younger sisters while his single mother works two jobs, as well as finding employment of his own to help make ends meet. Skeezie could do worse than landing a part-time job at the Candy Kitchen, his favorite hangout. There, he finds a mentor and confidante in a 19-year-old coworker, Steffi. She helps him sort out his feelings about his father, who makes an unexpected reappearance in Skeezie's life. In return, Skeezie offers advice on her relationship with a boy who wants to marry her and settle down. Once again, Howe shows uncanny understanding of adolescent concerns and vulnerabilities, painting a realistically complicated portrait of a boy's coming of age. Ages 10–14. Agent: Amy Berkower, Writers House. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"Howe complements the strong first-person voice with tweets, texts, and dialogue transcripts as he tackles themes of bullying, family, and independence. Skeezie’s story swells with the same earnest humor and after-school-special sweetness as the other Misfits books. Indeed, this is a fitting final installment in the series. Each of the books has a distinct voice, reflecting the individual protagonist’s personality, yet they fit together perfectly, just like the friends themselves."

April 2014 Booklist

"This is a fitting final installment in the [Misfits] series. Each of the books has a distinct voice, reflecting the individual protagonist’s personality, yet they fit together perfectly, just like the friends themselves."

Booklist

**A Junior Library Guild Selection**

From the Publisher

2014-03-17
Over a decade has passed for readers since The Misfits (2001) introduced the Gang of Five, four seventh-grade outsiders who've got one another's backs; for Bobby, Joe, Addie and Skeezie, a year's gone by. It's Skeezie's turn to tell the story. Seventh grade is over. While his friends scatter on family vacations, Skeezie looks after his clingy, younger sisters. His father's never paid child support, his mom works two jobs, and now Skeezie needs one too. He's kept the stress and fighting at home a secret from the gang. Joe, out and proud, and Addie, smart and determined, have intact, supportive families; Bobby and his widowed father live in a trailer park, but they're doing fine, too. Addie's sometime friend Becca has a crush on Skeezie—or does she? Skeezie enjoys the job he's landed at the Candy Kitchen, working with pretty Steffi, who calls him Elvis and has family and boyfriend problems herself. When his dad shows up out of the blue, Skeezie's life changes again, and he's torn between the possibility of a new life and loyalty for the one he knows. Skeezie tells his story from two vantages, interspersing his present-tense account with occasional interjections from his 12-years-older self. If it lacks the spare, lyrical power of Addie on the Inside (2011), Skeezie's story shares the series' strengths. With its companions, it's a powerful affirmation of friendship, compassion and the right to be accepted for who we are. (Fiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews