Pay Attention, Carter Jones

Name: Pay Attention, Carter Jones
Brand: Recorded Books
Availability: InStock
Author: Gary D. Schmidt
ISBN: 9781980010555

Author: Gary D. Schmidt

Narrator: Christopher Gebauer

Unabridged: 5 hr 10 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 02/05/2019

Categories: Children's Fiction, Children's Social Themes, Sports Stories

Synopsis

Bestselling author Gary D. Schmidt tells a coming-of-age story with the light touch of The Wednesday Wars, the heart of Okay for Now, and the unique presence of a wise and witty butler. Carter Jones is astonished early one morning when he finds a real English butler, bowler hat and all, on the doorstep-one who stays to help the Jones family, which is a little bit broken. In addition to figuring out middle school, Carter has to adjust to the unwelcome presence of this new know-it-all adult in his life and navigate the butler's notions of decorum. And ultimately, when his burden of grief and anger from the past can no longer be ignored, Carter learns that a burden becomes lighter when it is shared. Sparkling with humor, this insightful and compassionate story will resonate with readers who have confronted secrets of their own.

About Gary D. Schmidt

Gary D. Schmidt is the bestselling author of The Labors of Hercules Beal; Just Like That; National Book Award finalist Okay for Now; Pay Attention, Carter Jones; Orbiting Jupiter; the Newbery Honor and Printz Honor Book Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy; and the Newbery Honor Book The Wednesday Wars. He is also a contributor to and coeditor, with Leah Henderson, of the acclaimed short story collection A Little Bit Super. He lives in rural Michigan.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Janssen on February 21, 2019

It's no Wednesday Wars or Okay for Now, but it's still DARN good. I just love everything he writes.......more

Goodreads review by Josiah on May 03, 2025

It doesn't exactly form a trilogy with two earlier Gary D. Schmidt novels—The Wednesday Wars and Okay for Now—but Pay Attention, Carter Jones is definitely related, though set decades in the future. "Stupid old Marysville" isn't that different from when Doug Swieteck and Lil Spicer were kids, but a......more

Goodreads review by Wendi on July 22, 2018

Mr. Bowles-Fitzpatrick is a butler Carter’s family has inherited from his grandfather. He is very British and old-fashioned, and he immediately starts mending this broken family. We find out that Carter’s brother has passed away, and his father is stationed far away, incommunicado. There are some fa......more

Goodreads review by Katie on January 26, 2024

I love Gary Schmidt’s books so much. They make me cry and laugh and feel so deeply. In this book Carter Jones is working through grief and anger—and to help him is a bona fide butler who helps him aspire to gentlemanly behavior. The butler—a Brit through and through—is funny (in that dry British way......more

Goodreads review by Leonard on February 16, 2019

This made me think of Louisiana’s Way Home, and not just because of kids driving cars and having to find forgiveness or at least understanding for a parental figure. It’s because Schmidt, like DiCamillo, can write with such intensity that things are allowed to be unbelievable and funny and absurd in......more