Donavan's Double Trouble

Donavan's Double Trouble follows a fourth grader through two hard situations at once: math that won't click and an uncle who came home from war missing both legs below the knee. DeGross handles both with genuine care. The uncle, Uncle Vic, is the quiet strength of the book — a man who doesn't let his nephew off the hook for either the math avoidance or the discomfort. That honest back-and-forth is the best thing here. Kirkus flagged the pacing as overlong and a little preachy at times, and that's a fair call — the lessons do occasionally get spelled out when the story could do the work. But for early chapter-book readers, especially in classroom libraries looking for diverse protagonists, this one earns its shelf space. Clean and fully family-safe.