The Cardturner by Louis Sachar

Pages: 315

Intended Audience:  Teens and Tweens

Genre: Real life

Notes for parents: None.

The Inside Cover

The summer after grade 11 looks bleak for Alton Richards. His girlfriend has dumped him to hook up with his best friend. He has no money and no job. His parents insist that he drive his great-uncle Lester to his bridge club four times a week and be his cardturner—whatever that means. Alton’s uncle is old, blind, very sick, and very rich.

But Alton’s parents aren’t the only ones trying to worm their way into Lester Trapp’s good graces. They’re in competition with his longtime housekeeper, his alluring young nurse, and the crazy Castaneda family, who seem to have a mysterious influence over him.

Alton soon finds himself intrigued by his uncle, by the game of bridge, and especially by the pretty and shy Toni Castaneda. As the summer goes on, he struggles to figure out what it all means, and ultimately to figure out the meaning of his own life.

Through Alton’s wry observations, Louis Sachar explores the disparity between what you know and what you think you know. With his incomparable flair and inventiveness, he examines the elusive differences between perception and reality—and inspires readers to think and think again.

What the Inside Cover doesn’t tell you:

The inside cover doesn’t tell you that by the time you finish reading this book you’ll know how to play bridge.

What’s good?

Sachar is a great storyteller. The story is engaging and at times can be downright comical. Alton is a typically awkward teen and his great-uncle Lester is a typical grumpy old man. Alton’s sister, Leslie, is a great supporting character. Sachar created a clever way for those (like me) who were uninterested in the finer points of bridge. If you come to a little drawing of a whale, you can skip everything after it until you come to a summary box. In the summary box would be the short and sweet version of everything you just skipped over. Ingenious.

Best part: I liked the short chapters. It was a very quick and easy read for a book over 300 pages.

What’s not so good?

There was SO much bridge jargon! I can appreciate a good card game, but I didn’t share the growing fascination Alton had for the game. Maybe if this had been about horse racing or poker or anything less complicated than bridge I may have been able to get into it a little more, but as it was, I felt like I was reading a foreign language half the time. Yes, I skipped the opportunities to learn more about the game by going straight to the summary box after the whale. I loved the summary box.

Worst part: Alton’s greedy parents were a little over the top.

Recommendations þþþoo

I would love to give this book four checkmarks because of the fabulous writing, great characters, humour, and inventive devices, but all the bridge playing, bridge talk, and undecipherable bridge strategy kept it from being enjoyable for me. Unfortunately I can’t imagine too many teens and tweens who would be drawn to this card-playing adventure. I hope I’m wrong because it does deserve an audience.

Sachar, Louis. The Cardturner. Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2010. (Hardcover)