2010 book 274

Charles Elton's Mr. Toppit
If you're a fan of the comic book Unwritten (like I am), the basic premise of this story will feel a bit familiar: a young man whose father wrote a best-selling series of kids' books with him as the main character struggles to deal with his fame. Only Unwritten, of course, takes a turn for the magical, whereas this story is very much grounded in reality. Our protagonist is Luke Hayman, known to fans of his father as Luke Hayseed, and he's coming of age in weird times. His father died tragically before the books become famous, and all of that is tied in with a bizarre American radio personality who happened to encounter Luke's father just before he died. Meanwhile, Luke's older sister has been left out of the stories entirely, and is currently in yet another rehab facility. The story of how these books became famous, and how the children deal with everything, is surprisingly moving (though I was less interested in the parts about the crass American) and I highly recommend this. A/A-.