Hope Springs a Leak

Lisa Arsenault is an elementary-school teacher in Ajax, Ontario.

An attractive and charismatic young lady from Toronto comes to the small
Ontario town of Hope Springs to teach Sam’s Grade 6 class. Sam, who
develops a crush on her, vows to become “special” in order to
impress her. Hope Springs is a sleepy little town where everybody knows
everybody else, and nothing exciting ever seems to happen. Sam has his
work cut out for him devising schemes to make himself special, and many
embarrassing events conspire against him. Skilfully interwoven with the
story of Sam’s burgeoning crush is a corresponding growing interest in
Sam on the part of a girl his own age. Both “romances” are brought
to an appropriate and satisfying conclusion.

Hope Springs a Leak is a rite-of-passage story about an adolescent
struggling to make the transition from childhood to adulthood. Anyone
who has ever experienced first love will identify with Sam’s largely
botched efforts to impress. Humor takes the sting out of Sam’s various
predicaments in this very funny story, which is accompanied by a minimum
of preteen angst.

The language is also recommended. The author switches effortlessly
between teenage slang and descriptive, evocative writing such as “the
snow glowed like blue neon.” He is particularly good at evoking place:
you can almost hear the wisps of Dixieland music drifting from the band
shell on a summer evening and smell the moldy chunks of indoor-outdoor
carpet in the ice-fishing hut. This book is recommended for its engaging
plot and rich language.