The Big Game of Everything
Grade 7–10—Introspective and curious, Jock is considering questions many people never get around to puzzling out: What is the true measure of success? Is it money? Or, is it somehow achievable merely by defining one's own vision of happiness and making it happen? While most young adults' values are defined by friends and family, Jock's moral compass lacks an obvious pole to fix upon. His hippieish parents happily operate a barbershop with a backward business plan based on convincing would-be patrons to let their hair grow, and his younger brother brazenly takes materialistic self-interest, snarkiness, and sloth to laughable heights. Jock's main challenge in this crash course in self-discovery lies in figuring out if the employer he idolizes, the owner of the underutilized golf complex on which he works—and who also happens to be his grandfather—is a worthy role model or a tortured train in the midst of derailment. Unlike Jock's parents, Grampus claims to believe in entrepreneurial ambition. He pursues those goals in idiosyncratic fashion, running and expanding his 13-hole golf course on his own terms, often shoeless and shirtless—and sometimes in a kilt. Jock begins to wonder if his grandfather's a winner, a loser, or something in between—until a series of unexpected visits and a mild stroke force the answer.The Big Game of Everythingis a funny and thoughtful novel that considers the true nature of class, happiness, and success through the eyes of a teenage boy.—Jeffrey Hastings, Highlander Way Middle School, Howell, MICopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.