For all of us who fell in love with Colleen Minou (Stoner) and Ben Bancroft (Spaz, due to his cerebral palsy), Ron Koertge's follow-up more than measures up to the novel that introduced them, Stoner & Spaz. Ben met with approval from his peers with his documentary, High School Confidential. But Colleen came with him for the screening, and left early with "a guy with a couple of joints and a Pontiac Firebird," as Ben puts it. Ben did, however, meet a fellow filmmaker, Amy, who goes by A.J., respects his work and wants to talk with him about film.
Here Koertge digs deeper into the lives of both Colleen and Ben, and as they confide more in each other, they touch off a snowball effect. A.J. adds another dimension to their exchanges, and Colleen urges Ben to search for his mother. If you find yourself keeping a list of Ben's favorites for your Netflix queue, you're in good company. When he and Colleen pull up at his mother's address, 111 Magnolia, he thinks, "One eleven is a little seedy, like in Day of the Locust, the ultimate movie about Hollywood the way it used to be." The chemistry between Colleen and Ben oozes from every page. She's gutsy and smart as well as beautiful, and she makes Ben feel prized and alive. He stands by her in her struggle to stay clean as the one person she can count on and, in all the important ways, he can count on her. Life is messy, no one is perfect, but they are in it together. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness