The Absolute Value of Mike ~ Kathryn Erskine

Mike Frost is not a math genius like his father. He's not even math competent. However, his father keeps hoping things will change if he stoutly ignores the situation.

Mike Frost is good at life. He does the shopping, cleaning, organizing, and generally keeps their tiny family from dissolving into absent-minded professor chaos. Mike's dad can't even be relied upon to find his own keys.

So when Professor Frost takes a summer teaching position in Romania, naturally Mike thinks he is going. Not so. Mike's father sends Mike to stay with a catatonic great-uncle (Poppy) and flighty great-aunt (Moo) because Poppy is supposedly orchestrating a complex hydraulic engineering project that Mike is expected to help out with.

Also not so.

The "project" at hand has nothing to do with math. The small and poor town where Poppy and Moo live is undertaking a much more complex project — funding the adoption of a small boy from Romania. A small boy who is uncannily similar to Mike. Mike is quickly thrust into the center of this project since Poppy refuses to re-join the ranks of the living after losing his son, Doug.

The local homeless guy (who is hiding a few major secrets), a bank teller with biker boyfriends, the local temporary minister (the expectant mom), the Three Stooges of the craft world, and a Ford Taurus named Tyrone all contribute the little they have. But it's up to Mike to make sure it's enough.

Without letting his dad find out he's not making an artesian screw.

The Absolute Value of Mike sets the bar for self-discovery books for young boys. Mike does not get over his math problems, but it doesn't matter; he finds his own absolute value helping others.