One Last Job

Because Michael doesn’t live in the best area of town, his mother is making him look after his grandfather for the summer to keep him off the streets and away from friends who may be bad influences. He is supposed to help Gramps around the house, remind him to take his heart pills, clean his apartment, and take him for walks. But Gramps isn’t your average grandparent—he’s a retired cat burglar with a lifetime of criminal experience, including a stint spent behind bars.

When a thief breaks into Gramps’ apartment and steals a necklace that belonged to Michael’s deceased grandmother, Michael and Gramps are bound and determined to get it back. Gramps asks Michael to use his connections on the streets to find out the whereabouts of the necklace. After Michael goes rogue and gets himself into hot water with some dangerous characters, Gramps tells him to stay out of it, but, just like his grandfather, nothing can stop Michael once he sets his mind to something. Grandson and grandfather team up to track down the sentimental necklace and steal it back—without being caught, of course.

Author Sean Rodman has written several books for the “Orca Soundings” series, including Firewall (www.cmreviews.ca/cm/vol24/no4/firewall.html) and The Bodyguard, (www.cmreviews.ca/node/485). In addition to writing books for young adults, he works at The Story Studio, a charity that inspires and empowers students, particularly at-risk teens, to become writers and storytellers. His interest in writing for young adults arose from teaching students all over the world. Rodman resides and works in Victoria, British Columbia.

One Last Job is part of Orca’s new “Orca Anchor” series. “Orca Anchor” is a set of high interest, low vocabulary titles geared specifically to teens reading below a grade 2 level. The books are relatively short in length and are written with the intent of being accessible to and engaging beginning readers with their relatable and diverse real-life topics, characters, and settings. The books in the series consist of short chapters, action-packed plotlines, and straightforward vocabulary with the intent of capturing readers’ attention whilst teaching about relevant and engaging topics. The series includes enhanced features, such as a dyslexia-friendly font, cream paper to reduce contrast, increased spacing between words and lines, and larger trim size to increase accessibility for students with dyslexia or other reading and learning disabilities, beginning readers, and English language learners.

After having read and reviewed titles from Orca’s other high-low series and having purchased several book sets from these series, I can confirm that the “Orca Anchor” series adds another layer to Orca’s already robust collection of material for beginning and striving readers, those with reading disabilities and other learning challenges, and students for whom English is an additional language. Orca’s other high-low series, including “Orca Soundings”, “Orca Sports”, “Orca Currents”, “Orca Limelights”, and “Rapids Reads”, are primarily targeted at middle and high school readers with reading levels from 2.0-5.0. “Orca Anchor” fills a hole in the market for librarians, teachers, and students in our increasingly diverse classrooms, for students with reading levels from 1.0-2.0, for whom finding age-appropriate, engaging, and relatable material was previously a challenge.

One Last Job is a book that is full of suspense and has a fast-moving plot, all packaged in its relatively short page length. The book is short, but not simplistic, and the content and themes are age-appropriate for teens. This book has many characteristics that are likely to appeal to a variety of readers in the target audience. The realistic and engaging content, relatable characters, and action-packed plot will be of interest to and accessible for reluctant readers, beginning readers, English language learners, and students with dyslexia and other reading disabilities. The unique features of this text make it and the other books in the “Orca Anchor” line a welcome addition to Orca’s high-low book series and are likely to fill a much-needed role for many educators looking for age-appropriate content for their beginning readers in middle and high school.