Corinne Gerson

This is a hard book to read. Liz's brother has died tragically and her family (Liz plus parents) is floundering. Her mother continually accuses her of trying to make her parents feel bad, interpreting her every action or inaction as malicious. When Liz forms a friendship with a disabled boy whom she is tutoring in French, her parents explode shrieking about that "[ableist slur] from a dirty [ethnic slur] family" and it's just cringe, as my grandchildren say. A lot of stuff gets worked through and cleared up in suitable problem-book-for-young-adult style, but because of Liz's truly appalling parents and their even more appalling friends, it's not as much fun getting there as I would have liked.… (meer)

Originally called Son for a Day, Zoodaddies was republished by Weekly Reader in the 1990s.

Zoodaddies is a story about Danny, a boy living in New York City with his aunt while his mom has left for California to try to be an actor. Feeling a little bit abandoned by his family, Danny gets a big idea one weekend at the Bronx Zoo: he observes several uncomfortable-looking single fathers with their kids in tow and decides to insert himself into these families "to break the ice" between the dads and kids and get a "taste of family life" in the meantime.

Danny's plan not only works, it is incredibly successful. But there's one catch- Danny keeps his plan a secret, telling no one. As he adopts more and more zoodaddy families, his schedule begins to crack. What will happen if everyone finds out?

Zoodaddies is a creative look at family life through the eyes of one lonely boy and several families dealing with divorce. It is unfortunate that this book is no longer in print.… (meer)