All Shook Up by Shelley Pearsall

I really love this book! I thought it was going to be a light read, and it is because it's funny and it is, after all, about a kid whose father becomes an Elvis impersonator, but it has a lot to say, too. Poor Josh! The summer he turns 13, his grandma breaks her hip, and his mom has to go to Florida to take care of her. So that means Josh has to go stay with his Dad in Chicago for a few months. What his father hasn't told anyone is that the shoe store where he'd worked for years went out of business, and since he won the Elvis singing contest at the mall, he's been working as an Elvis impersonator. I don't think I need to tell you how embarrassing that would be. Josh has to go to a new school, and his main concern is to fit in and not draw attention to himself. This plan works pretty well until he meets his dad's new girlfriend, and finds out that her daughter is one of the "losers" at school. She dresses in 60's clothes from her mom's vintage shop and starts leaving notes on Josh's locker signed, "Elvisly yours." Of course by the end of the book Josh learns not to be so concerned with what everyone else thinks about him, and to be more concerned about the feelings of the people around him. Review by Stacy Church