Out of Patience by Brian Meehl Grades 5-8 304 pages Delacorte May 2006 Hardcover     Brian Meehl’s Out of Patience is one of the funniest, most enjoyable and amusing young adult books that I have read in some time. The author plays on male humor and spices the tale with baseball, buried treasure, historical robbery and ancestral mystery. Certain to appeal to grades 5 through 8, this 304-page hardcover will repeatedly entertain young readers. Meehl leaves bits of humor on every page and reveals beauty even in a storm - a talent sometimes difficult to find among the young adult genre. Out of Patience is set in an endearing, dusty small town in Kansas - tornado country. This rural town’s only claim to fame is its odorous fertilizer plant. A legendary curse uttered about 130 years ago by a crazed pioneer who discovered that Jeremiah Waters had installed a flush toilet still resides in the minds of Patience’s citizens today. Jake Waters harbors a desperate yearning to get away from Patience - anywhere that may have people with receptive minds and where life might be more exciting. His ancestral connection to the town does not make his life easier, and when Jake discovers his father intends to open a toilet museum, his dwindling hopes of social survival among his peers are crushed. Ashamed and embarrassed, all Jake wants to do is get away. Jake’s best friend is quirky, loveable Cricket, a recent Pakistani immigrant whose parents run the hotel. Her talents for unburying weird and wacky facts about Patience may very well inspire classrooms to do their own weird and wacky reports; I fell in love with this loyal and warm-hearted character. The bonding scenes between Jake and his father are subtle and moving. Readers will be inspired by Jake's self-discovery and the changes he undergoes during the tale. I recommend this book to any family with children between the ages of nine and thirteen.   web reviews   Lillian Brummet/2007 for curled up with a good kid's book   For grown-up fiction, nonfiction and speculative fiction book reviews, visit our sister site Curled Up With a Good Book (www.curledup.com)