You have to love your family. You do, even if you don't, right? You don't have to understand them or play tennis with them, but you have to love them. It's a rule, and it's the kind of rule you don't break unless you're some kind of animal.My brother happens to be some kind of animal. My sister rides this sweet gold Honda scooter and has amazing hair. You'd hate her. My parents are vegetarian let-the-sunshine-in freaks. Lovable freaks but freaks all the same. My grand-father possesses a shocking comb-over, a kilt, about half of his original marbles, and his own golf complex. This summer, we are all working for him. It is going to be two hot, lucrative, carefree months of paradise.Or, possibly something else. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Gr 7-10-Introspective and curious, Jock is considering questions many people never get around to puzzling out: What is the true measure of success? Is it money? Or, is it somehow achievable merely by defining one's own vision of happiness and making it happen? While most young adults' values are defined by friends and family, Jock's moral compass lacks an obvious pole to fix upon. His hippieish parents happily operate a barbershop with a backward business plan based on convincing would-be patrons to let their hair grow, and his younger brother brazenly takes materialistic self-interest, snarkiness, and sloth to laughable heights. Jock's main challenge in this crash course in self-discovery lies in figuring out if the employer he idolizes, the owner of the underutilized golf complex on which he works-and who also happens to be his grandfather-is a worthy role model or a tortured train in the midst of derailment. Unlike Jock's parents, Grampus claims to believe in entrepreneurial ambition. He pursues those goals in idiosyncratic fashion, running and expanding his 13-hole golf course on his own terms, often shoeless and shirtless-and sometimes in a kilt. Jock begins to wonder if his grandfather's a winner, a loser, or something in between-until a series of unexpected visits and a mild stroke force the answer. The Big Game of Everything is a funny and thoughtful novel that considers the true nature of class, happiness, and success through the eyes of a teenage boy.-Jeffrey Hastings, Highlander Way Middle School, Howell, MI Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Jock and his younger brother Egon constantly at odds but nearly inseparable spend a summer working at their grandfather's golf course in this lighthearted but poignant story. When two of Grampus' old marine buddies show up, throwing their money around and wowing young Egon by buying whatever they want, often simply so that no one else can have it, Jock begins to see Grampus in a new light, revealing a deeply sad man notching his self-worth against the yardstick of wealth. In a golf-as-life touch, Grampus' unfinished golf course has only 13 holes ( For a full round pick your favorite five holes and replay them ), and the game takes on cosmic weight as Jock challenges a bully to a round in a massive thunderstorm: I am doing something hard, and it feels important, even if to the outside world it might look stupid. The lesson that the most heart, not the most stuff, wins the real points in life is handled cleanly enough to keep even non-golfers involved in the humorous exploits of Jock and his family.--Chipman, Ian Copyright 2008 Booklist From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.