“I felt rotten today. It’s my mother’s fault for singing “My Way” at two o’clock in the morning at the top of the stairs. Just my luck to have a mother like her. There is a chance my parents could be alcoholics. Next year I could be in a children’s home.”
Solomon decides to work on his dyslexia. Wow, big surprise. His dad might start going to alcoholics meetings. The wondrous teacher leaves because she is so good (after a week or two), that she gets a promotion.
It starts as a realistic novel, describing the desolate situation of a boy trying to cope with severe dyslexia. But the author adds too many problems. His mom has left, his dad is an unreliable alcoholic, his teacher an unbelievably one-dimensional bully.