School Stinks!

Lori McLeod is a librarian with the Toronto Public Library.

When the closings of the mill and local school are announced, prospects
for the small community of Heatherbank are bleak. Fourteen-year-old
Robbie and his friends Spider and Mona are determined to find a way to
keep their school open. Robbie hatches an idea when he comes across a
local history book that mentions a former Heatherbank student, Jimmy
Brokefsky, who went on to establish a large oil company. Robbie thinks
that if Brokefsky were made aware of the school’s plight he might be
willing to provide financial assistance to avert its closing. So begins
the teenagers’ trek to Calgary to visit the elderly millionaire. The
journey is not without a series of crazy mishaps.

O’Keeffe captures the sadness, uncertainty, and anxiety that grip a
community when its main industry is in danger of being closed. At a time
in which we are inundated with newspaper headlines detailing
bankruptcies, plant closings, and layoffs, the happy ending is a welcome
one, although at times the use of luck and coincidence stretches the
story’s credibility. Children ages 10-13 will read this entertaining
book in a single sitting.