Smiles to go by: Jerry Spinelli

Smiles to go part 1:

            Most kids these days are act before you think. Well Will Tuppence isn’t. Sure he’s a normal 9th grade kid that likes to skate board, and play monopoly with his two best friends Anthony Bontempo (B-T) and Mi-Su. But inside he is much more.

            He is a thinker that’s how you could describe him.  He is kind of a science geek and loves to look out in the night sky and see the stars. In fact, he wants to be an astronomer. He is highly skilled at chess and has won a trophy for winning a chess tournament. But in his world things that don’t seem important to you are important to him. For instance proton decay.  This is a big deal for Will because it means that nothing lasts. He used to hang out with his neighbor and he was a science person and always shared his discoveries with Will.

            He has a little sister named Tabatha, Tabby for short. She is always finding different ways to bother him. He thinks it’s just to bug him. But that isn’t the case. She just wants her older brother to give her attention and love her. This show that Will is a little oblivious to what is going on with his relationship with his little sister.

            You know that girl Mi-Su. Ya. Well Will has a crush on her. It’s true throughout the book Will develops feeling for Mi-Su after he goes to a star party and sees her and B-T kissing. He thinks up all these plans and thinks of what he would say so he would be able to kiss Mi-Su.  He finally succeeds but finds out that she is going to prom with someone else.

            Since the new of the protons death Will has been seeing little flashes of light places he goes. He thinks they are protons disappearing one by one. His fear is that one day he is never going to be him, no pieces left of Will Tuppence, no atoms, no protons, no nothing. I still don’t understand this side of Will, but I think that’s what he is getting at.

            When Will’s sister tabby tries to skateboard down this very steep hill and ends up in the hospital. Will is all tangled up in emotions.  He is sad and shocked with the tabby situation; he is in “love” with Mi-Su and still wondering if his best friend B-T has feelings for her as well. His sister recovers fine and Mi-Su skips prom to stay with Will and help him with his sister.

Smiles to go part 2:

            It seems there is always a conflict going on between Will and his sister Tabatha, Tabby for short. She does things she is not supposed to be doing like when she put sweet potato in the toaster while will was on the phone with Mi-Su, or when she screams mischief night! Before Halloween because she isn’t allowed to go trick or treating on Halloween. she runs around her house causing well you guessed mischief. These are just some of the things Tabby does to Will, poor innocent Will.

            Is there a reason for this? Why is Will put through all this touchor? Well Will finds out at the end of the book that Tabby doesn’t think Will loves her and she want attention from him but he doesn’t give her any. She is always dropping black jelly bean in the trash can because she knows that they are Will’s favorite. What Will doesn’t know until his mother tells him later in the book is that after Will leaves the room Tabby always takes out the jelly beans, cleans them off, and puts them in a jar which she is going to give to Will on his next birthday.

After Tabby got out of the hospital Will had a different attitude towards her because he got her side of the conflict and he then let her hangout with him and then she doesn’t bug him as much.
            I think the conflict was solved. Will and Tabby are friendlier to each other and are more loving. I think what Tabby does to get the attention she wants is what almost what all younger siblings do to their older siblings because that way just seems logical to them. And Will reaction to it was reasonable and again how almost all of the older siblings react to their younger siblings pestering.

Another conflict in the book is between Will and B-T. Will think he has to kind of put up a fight because he wants to go out with Mi-Su. B-T kissed her and that triggered Wills thinking, and he found out that he liked Mi-Su. B-T on the other hand to him the kiss was only a onetime thing. Will didn’t know that so he felt that he kind of had to be sneaky about trying to kiss Mi-Su. I think there would have been no conflict if Will had known that B-T didn’t really like Mi-Su like that and that the kiss was only a onetime thing.