Choldenko, Gennifer. The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2024.

Guide to categories – MS Review – review of books for older elementary-aged and middle school-aged children

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Summary

Readers will be rooting for a happy ending for Hank in Newbery-Honor-winner Gennifer Choldenko’s gripping story of a boy struggling to hold his family together when his mom doesn’t come home.

When eleven-year-old Hank’s mom doesn’t come home, he takes care of his toddler sister, Boo, like he always does. But it’s been a week now. They are out of food and mom has never stayed away this long… Hank knows he needs help, so he and Boo seek out the stranger listed as their emergency contact.

But asking for help has consequences. It means social workers, and a new school, and having to answer questions about his mom that he’s been trying to keep secret. And if they can’t find his mom soon, Hank and Boo may end up in different foster homes–he could lose everything.

Gennifer Choldenko has written a heart-wrenching, healing, and ultimately hopeful story about how complicated family can be. About how you can love someone, even when you can’t rely on them. And about the transformative power of second chances.

Purchase The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman on Amazon – https://amzn.to/3xJPcQx

My MS Review

In The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman author Gennifer Choldenko successfully gets into the viewpoint of a young middle school boy. The story is well-written with characters who grow and develop, who are better at the end of the story than they were at the beginning. 

Sadly many upper elementary and middle school students will relate to Hank, the main character in this book. He has a mom with an addiction problem, never knew his father, and is responsible for the care of his toddler sibling. 

After mom has been missing for a week he sets out trying to find a person he doesn’t know whom his mom placed as an emergency contact on a field trip form. The story follows the ups and downs of Hank and his sister “Boo” as they navigate life without their mom. A life where they have to live with strangers and a life where child protective services gets involved. A neighbor who has lost his family yet opens his heart to love Hank and Boo allowing them to visit him. Where Hank  makes mistakes in judgment that get him kicked out of the place where he and Boo have been staying and he ends up in a group home for Christmas. 

It is a sad, yet too real, story in today’s world. I would love to see Choldenko get a Newbery for this title.

It would make a great addition to a K-12 Christian school library. It is appropriate for older elementary and middle school students.
I received a complimentary copy of The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman. This is my honest review.

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