Jumping the Scratch ~ Sarah Weeks

Do you ever get the feeling that whenever something bad happens, there are worse things to come? Well that was what Jamie Reardon assumed when his cat Mister died and his father left his mother for another woman. Most importantly, his aunt Sapphy had a huge accident in the cherry factory that caused her to be unable to store new memories. She was like a scratched record that kept on repeating the same line over and over again, but unlike everybody else, Jamie wanted to help his aunt "Jump the scratch" and carry on with her life.

Unfortunately there is one more bad thing in store for Jamie-something he'd give anything to be able to forget, and this one leaves himself feeling like a complete stranger in the world. One of Jamie's neighbors is a girl in his class called Audrey. She is smart like him, and slowly they become friends. She said that she could hypnotize people, and he wondered whether she could help him with forgetting his secret. However, thinking about what happened to him just made him want to tell someone else about it.

Jamie tries in vain to find the magic trigger that would help Sapphy's memory 'Jump the scratch', like the needle on her favourite Frank Sinatra record, but in the end it is aunt Sapphy and Audrey who helps him unravel the mysteries of memory and jump the scratch in his own life. Jamie never thought that Jamie's horrible secret would be the key for his aunt to jump the scratch as well.

I would recommend this book to anybody from the age of eleven to one hundred and one because it will completely soften your heart and let you know what bad luck really is!

This miraculous book tells a story of a young teenage boy who has gone through a lot of obstacles to overcome what he has gone through. I found this book very interesting and memorable. The part of the book is that you find out what Jamie's horrible secret is at the very end of the book. This develops a cool twist that leaves your mind spinning. Want to know the ugly secret Jamie has to lock up in his heart and cover? Want to know why he would do anything to forget it? There is only one way you can find out. Read the book and uncover his heart-breaking story!