Book #4 in THE CARVER CHRONICLES finds Calvin needing to come up with a science fair project for school. In the meantime, the neighbors next door move to Florida to be closer to their grandchildren. Calvin spends quite a bit of time avoiding the new neighbors, a cranky older cigarette smoking woman and a bully from school – Harper- aka Monster Boy.

Author -Karen English must secretly live inside of boys’ heads to know what they are thinking, she is that ‘spot on’. Take Calvin’s science fair project, ” ‘I’m going to find a bunch of great optical illusions, and I’m going to prove who’s faster at seeing them, boys or girls. Even though I already know the answer.’ ” (21)  Calvin results have him later wondering if he should tamper with the data, just so the boys’ times are not so slow. He keeps the original data.

Calvin’s father meets the new neighbor lady and invites Harper to go to the movies with Calvin and him. How could Calvin’s father have encroached on their father son time, especially with that bully Harper? When Calvin’s friends start coming up with Harper scenarios at the movie theater, Calvin is surprised at himself when he defends Harper.

At the movie, Harper reveals the lady he lives with is a foster mother because Harper and his mother are homeless. Later on an early release day from school, Harper takes Calvin to the Community Garden. There Harper introduces Calvin to his mother and to Harper’s science fair project- do plants respond to classical music. Calvin had doubted Harper would even do a science fair project.

As more and more eye opening events  are witnessed by Calvin, as Harper is concerned, Calvin comes to realize living next door to Harper is “going to be kind of fun.” (139)

Laura Freeman’s pencil sketches, about three per chapter, add just that extra little something to push the characterizations over the top.