One Smart Kid

by Edwin Moses

Thirteen-year-old Marvin Hollowell becomes involved in the gossip about a strange guest at the usually empty hotel owned by Eileen O'Connell, a widow and Marvin's friend

Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Edwin Moses was born in Washington, D.C., but moved to Manhattan, Kansas seven years later. After serving three years in the army (including one year in Vietnam), he received a B.A. from Kansas State University and a Ph.D. from the State University of New York (Binghamton), both in English. He has taught at Kansas State, North Central Technical Institute, and the University of Akron, and has contributed stories to Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and academic articles to various literary journals.

He lives (lived?) with his wife and son in Lawrence, Kansas where he teaches (taught?) at the University of Kansas. One Smart Kid was his first novel.

- taken from About this Author in One Smart Kid (published 1983)

Reviews

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a short book, but it took me awhile to finish because it was so slow moving thus hard to get into. The last few chapters were good, but it took almost 200 pages to get to that point.

[iam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this a long time ago, but I loved it then and still think of it occasionally now. It was my absolute favorite book for a couple of years. I'm not sure what I'd think of it today - some twenty years later - but I'd like to re-read it. I remember it was part mystery and part character development, a coming of age story for a boy in a small town.