Character Profile

Summary

A contemporary novel about a teenage boy with Tourette Syndrome who takes unexpected road trip. 
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Stats

Genre: Tween (10-13) contemporary humor with a supernatural twist. 

Series length: Standalone book

Violence: Low, comedic action violence

Magic/Supernatural: Light, restricted to the family curse. 

Romance: Light--he has a crush on a girl at school. 

Language: Moderate (including swear words like hell and damn​)
 
Christian/spiritual element: Light, implied, but great themes of gratitude, the power of words, and on living life fully.

Recommendation: Geared more for boys than girls, though some girls might enjoy it as well. Great for reluctant readers.

You might like this book if you liked... 
the humor of Percy Jackson or the Diaries of a Wimpy Kid.

To Purchase

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Opening lines: 

"Sam has it. Question is, how bad?"

The pediatrician smiled. Like he got off on destroying a kid's life. Like children frequently went to sleep normal and work up monsters who couldn't keep their damn bodies still. 

He stared at me, waiting. My right hand twitched. He pointed and continued. "The disease has seasons. One day he'll flail like a windmill in spring. Then the wind'll die and you won't see anything for for months."

Jerk, California
by Jonathan Friesen

Twitch, Jerk, Freak--

Sam Carrier has been called them all. Because of his Tourette syndrome, Sam is in near constant motion with tics and twitches and verbal outburtsts. So, of course, high school is nothing but torment. Forget friends; forget even hoping that beautiful, perfect Naomi will look his way. And home isn't much better with his domineering stepfather reminding him that the only person who was more useless than Sam was his dead father, James. But then an unexpected turn of events unearths the truth about his father. And suddenly Sam doesn't know who he is, or even where he'll go next. What does know is that the only girl in the world who can make him happy and nervous at the same time is everywhere he turns . . . and he'd give anything to just be still​.

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