Fourteen year old Walker prays for God to help his mother who has not stopped crying since Walker's older brother died. Walker also wants to know why God would take his seventeen year old brother when half of the residents in his mom's nursing home are waiting to die. Then Walker finds Jesus standing in his bedroom. This version of Jesus is not a staid, serious deity. He cracks jokes, eats ice cream, and is a little freaked out by a sign on a hardware store advertising "all kinds of nails." Even though Walker asked for his mom to be helped, he also needs to come to terms with his brother's death. This is brief novel in verse packs a great deal into a few pages. And I was amused by the fact that the nursing home Walker's mom runs in the made up Coaltown, Illinois (20 miles from St. Louis) is called the Bissell House, the same as the historical home a couple blocks from my house.
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