Growing up is hard when your mentor is just a phantom…
Eleven-year-old Atlas is in a hurry to grow up. He wants to be strong and a gentleman, just like his hero, hockey legend Tim Horton. But most of the time he feels confused. What is puberty? Is he starting to be afflicted with it? How do you talk to girls? And how can he protect his too-trusting younger brother? Valentine’s Day, science class, hockey-everything seems perilous these days!
He really needs some fatherly advice. But his dad died three years ago, and anyway, Atlas is sure he’d have been no help at all. His father’s definitely not a hero. Who can he turn to?
Genre: Y/A, Fiction
Number of Pages: 151 pages
Date of Publication: 04/05/2020
Author/Illustrator/Publisher:
The author of this book is L.L. Rose who is Canadian. Her writing is inspired by her own experiences in Canada and around the world.
Rating: 4.5/5
Review:
This is such a cute, heart-warming and funny story which will make you think about growing up.
This is the first time that I read a book by L.L. Rose and I can tell you that I will definitely be reading more from her. This book took me back to when I was younger and it made me think of certain situations and in general about how I used to see the world as an older child.
The story centres on Atlas, an eleven-year-old who is desperate to grow up and start making his own decisions and who wants to guide and support his younger brother. Atlas lost his dad a few years ago and his mum has a new boyfriend who is nice to him but who he doesn’t want to confide in. Atlas is desperate to find a male figure who could guide him and support him. Then one day he sees Tim Horton’s ghost (a Canadian ice hockey player) in the mirror who starts talking to him and giving him advice.
To be honest I wasn’t so sure about the idea of having a ghost in this type of book but it worked well with the plot and wasn’t overused so it was a great element to read about. The plot is well balanced between Atlas’s struggles and his overcoming certain situations.
Growing up and realizing that things are different from when you are a younger child is hard. Things that used to make us happy now seem meaningless. Realizing that things cost money, that situations are harder that what they seemed before, that everyone has their own worries and that sometimes we need to see things from a different perspective and recognize other people’s needs.
This book touches the topics of family loss, growing up while trying to find a hero to look up to, a person’s relationship with their family and more.
Availability: The book is available on Amazon as a Paperback and as a Kindle edition
Copy gifted by the author.
Shelf Life 
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