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Moore, Martha.
MATCHIT
New York : Delacorte Press, 2002
IL 3-6, RL 3.6
ISBN 0385900236
Matchit's got a name that is almost as hard to explain as his life is. Story has it that his Daddy was playing cards with some friends when Matchit's mother went into labor. As she yelled for him to hurry he finally played his last hand yelling "Matchit" and that became the new child's name. It doesn't explain why his mother left the two of them when he was so young. It doesn't explain why he who was once considered so smart, now straggles with every class. Perhaps it does explain, just a little, why when his father's new girlfriend wants to on on a trip without Matchit, just his Dad, that Matchit gets angry, anxious and scared. And where does his father plan on leaving him while they go on this trip? At some lady's place named Babe, an old friend of his Dads, who lives on her own junkyard and smokes cigars. His father promises he will be back before Matchit's birthday, one of many promises he breaks to him over the next few weeks. Matchit is stuck at the junkyard, with a cigar smoking, affectionate woman who loves everyone, including Matchit. Much to his embarrassment she tells him she's always wanted a kid around. (Read the part of p.38 that describes her feelings and his) How will angry, anxious, and scared Matchit come to terms with a woman like Babe? MATCHIT BY MARTHA MOORE  (Sharon Macdonald, Director of Youth Services, Rye Public Library, Rye, NH,  sharon@rye.lib.nh.us)
SUBJECTS:     Fathers and sons -- Fiction.
                        Automobile graveyards -- Fiction.
                        Self-esteem -- Fiction.
                        Emotional problems -- Fiction.
                        Texas -- Fiction.

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