YA Review: Notes from the Midnight Driver by Jordan Sonnenblick

Alex Gregory is upset the night his mother, recently seperated from his dad, goes out on a first date.  His choice?  He gets drunk on a bottle of his dad's old vodka, hops in a car, and starts to drive to his dad's new house to try and catch him with his new romantic interest-- one of Alex's elementary school teachers.  However, Alex only gets halfway down the block before he decapitates a yard gnome and runs into a tree.  He's ordered to serve community service at a nursing home by 'hanging out' with the meanest old curmudgeon on the planet, Leo.  Alex bemoans his fate, but eventually comes to like the old man-- and winds up learning a lot about life in the process.  Despite the serious nature of the topic, this was one of the funniest books I read in 2007.  Sonnenblick's first person narrative in Alex's voice is well-paced and laugh-out-loud funny.  This is a book I've frequently suggested to high school students, especially young men.