cover image What I Heard

What I Heard

Mark Geller. HarperCollins Publishers, $11.95 (119pp) ISBN 978-0-06-022160-7

The author of My Life in the 7th Gradetells this comic and poignant tale in the words of Michael, and what Michael hears isn't good. Listening in on phone conversations at home, he discovers that his father is ""dating'' a woman named Celeste. Angry and worried for his mother, the boy consults his best friend, Arthur, a self-proclaimed expert on sex. There is delightfully broad humor in exchanges between the pals as they plan a campaign to break up the affair before Mrs. Kramer learns of it. The fast, absorbing novel arrives at a satisfactory end with no hokey contrivances as father and son reach an understanding and forgiveness. A Charlotte Zolotow book. Ages 10-up. (August)