Author:  Christopher Klim

Publishers: Hopewell Publications

ISBN: 0972690670

Genre: Young Adult

The following review was contributed by:  E.Dian Moore &  To read more about Dian Moore’s reviews click HERE

 Firecracker Jones is on the Case  is a multi-level adventure book for young adults that explores friendship, mystery and the jungles of high school.

Our hero, Francis Jones, (he hates that name) known by everyone as Firecracker, or just plain F., is a freshman in high school, and he’s funny and  tells the story of how he solved the missing friend mystery. 

F. was born on July 4, and you can guess where his nickname Firecracker comes from. He lives with his Mom, who is passionate about healthy eating—tofu and twigs being two of her favorites. F. has to also deal with being Attention Deficit Hearing Sensitive (ADHS), which translated, means he hears things most people don’t hear, and noises can drive him nuts. At home, he has yellow earmuffs to drown out such noisy beasts as the blender, a hammer being used and the vacuum cleaner

Best friend, Chub, is F.’s sidekick and he’s the perfect foil for F.’s wisecracks. 

Another best friend, Ted, a sophomore football star, suddenly moves, and he doesn’t tell either of his friends why or where; and F. smells a mystery he’s determined to solve. If only to tell Ted how mad he is.

But F. and Chub find out something they never expected. Something terrible happened to their friend, and the family moved to keep it a secret. (You’ll have to read the book to find out what the terrible thing is). 

Driven by his need to give Ted something special, F. dreams up a plan to “be” Ted and score the last touchdown of the season – the touchdown Ted needed to break the school record. Chub and a special girl help F. with the plan.

At times side-splittingly funny, Firecracker Jones tells a timeless story of drawing on one’s ingenuity, the importance of feelings and working them out, compassion, true friendship and self-sacrifice.  

The quirky observations from Firecracker drew me into the story and held me captive until the last page, at which point I read it over again to enjoy the comments F. makes in the narrative, like, “Our kitchen looked like the cabinets got sick and threw up everything onto the countertops;” and “If those baked tree limbs…”

Life isn’t fair, but Klim manages to have this young hero learn this lesson without succumbing to a boiler-plat plot.  

Firecracker is a kid I would have fell in love with in 9^th grade – a little weird, a lot quirky, curious and brave, who despite all the problems of being between childhood and manhood, recognizes the importance of friendship and perseverance, and wears yellow earmuffs (at home, of course.)

~*~