This is a hard book to read, but you get to cheer at the end, which I hope isn't too spoilery to start out with. 15-year-old Lucky Linderman has been bullied by his classmate Nader McMillan since they were seven. Even in the summer he can't escape Nader, who is a lifeguard at the pool Lucky goes to with his mom every day. But after Nader grinds Lucky's face into the pavement, Lucky's mom takes him to her brother's house in Arizona so they can both get away for a while.
I adore Lucky. He has a pretty level head and a remarkably kind heart for someone in his situation. He does what he can for another girl who's bullied by Nader. He has a nicely developed sense of humor and is geographically knowledgeable. About the scab on his cheek after the pavement incident, he says, "...it's the exact shape of Ohio. Like - identical. My eyeball is floating lazily on Lake Erie. It's thinking of going water-skiing later." As the weeks go by, the scab gets smaller and progresses through the shapes of several other eastern states. He also turns out to be a good cook, which he discovers when he's driven to desperation by his aunt's canned gravies and microwaved chicken nuggets and volunteers to cook.
While in regular life Lucky seems a small, unobtrusive teenage boy, what no one knows is that he has another life in which he is big, strong and attempting over and over to be a hero. At night when he's asleep, or sometimes when he daydreams in the daytime, Lucky goes to Vietnam to rescue his Grandad, who was listed as missing long before Lucky was born. His Granny devoted her life to reopening the search for him and other soldiers who went missing during the war. Practically every article of clothing Lucky owns has the MIA/POW symbol on it. Despite dozens of attempts, Lucky has not yet managed to rescue Grandad from his guard and the prison camp. But he can talk to Grandad, who listens and offers advice calmly, and is sometimes Lucky's only refuge.
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