I tried reading this book but sadly I didn't make it very far while reading this book. I think that the different point of views made it a bit difficult to understand . I usually love this author's books and I hoped that this one would work out for me.

Mr 60% follows the story of Matt who is taking care of his Uncle Jack who is been sick for quite some time. Matt is barely passing school and he's also selling drugs on the side to make money to pay for pain medication for his uncle.

I went into the story not really expecting what I read. Although it was short, the author managed to make me feel connected to the characters and the story itself evoked so much sadness. It was such a good story in that I felt it was an honest look at someone who's experiencing a loved one with an illness that is terminal. I felt like it was an honest take on someone who doesn't have parents in his life and poverty has resulted in selling drugs to make ends meet. I found Uncle Jack to be a wonderful character. I also really loved Amanda and loved her unconditional selflessness. I do wish that there was more to the book than there was because I really enjoyed it. But I will most definitely take what I got.

[Review will go live on blog on May 3, 2018 at 7am ET]

The more I got into this book the more I loved it . Would highly recommend this book if your trying to meet your good reads goal or just want a quick but good read

While Mr. 60% wasn’t a particularly hard read, it was a rough read. Since this book is so short, I really wasn’t expecting much from it, but boy was I wrong. This little book packed a big punch. Matt is doing just enough to get by by the skin of his teeth, and the vice principal is chomping at the bit to see Matt fail. The school counselor, however, is in Matt’s corner. This was one of my favorite aspects of the story. I think there are adults that are just so quick to write kids off, but it takes someone special who can see past the superficial and be there to cheer someone on and help them succeed. Matt’s story broke my heart, and while he wasn’t so much, I was very angry on his behalf. He’d been through so much and he really didn’t have anything to look forward to. Matt was essentially forced to live in the present, and he really was living day to day. I really liked the introduction of Amanda’s character in this story. She pretty much elbowed her way into Matt’s life, and her unexpected offer of friendship (though unwanted,) was just what Matt needed. As this book was short, obviously the pacing was pretty much non-stop. I found myself invested in what happened to Matt and to Amanda, and my heart just broke at Matt’s uncle’s last ditch effort to put him back on good terms with his mother. What I really liked about this book was how it really hits home the fact that you have no idea what’s going on in someone else’s life, and trying to define them by one aspect is doing them (and you) a disservice. This book was a four star read for me, but if it had been longer (and possibly with an Amanda POV addition,) there’s not a doubt in my mind that it could have been five.

This was a moving book -- moreso than I expected in the beginning, which is just what was supposed to happen. Matt, Mr. 60%, is a student who makes a point of just scraping by in everything -- doing just enough with school to keep from failing, which basically means showing up. He's smart, but he's also weighed down by an incredibly challenging home life. As we get to know him, we become more and more sympathetic to his plight, and more impressed by how much he really is doing while he seems to be just coasting through his senior year of high school. When he is forced to start engaging in order to graduate, he reluctantly discovers some friends, and he is most definitely in need of friends. How it all plays out makes for a very satisfactory read. Biggest lesson to take from the book -- don't judge anyone without taking the time to truly know them.

When Matt meets Amanda, he's not exactly thrilled to be paired with her--not because of her, but because he was forced to join the after-school service club as a graduation requirement. She's a social outcast but open to working with him, in spite of his reputation as a drug-dealer and slacker. Mr. 60% refers to Matt's ability to keep his grades just above 60% so he isn't flunked out of school.

As they get to know each other, Amanda learns why Matt's attendance is so spotty and he learns why she's so quiet and withdrawn--and they actually become friends, against the odds. They help one another out--Matt with Amanda's book drive for the children's wing of the hospital and her with caring for his sick uncle.

As a teacher I learned a while ago that there is usually more than meets the eye with some of the students that worry us the most. Mr. 60% reminded me of why we should dig deeper as to what motivates certain behaviors or attitudes in our students and why we should not give up on them.

This is not a difficult read. We can predict pretty much from the beginning where it is headed. The underachieving teen, the terminal uncle, the overlooked girl. These are all predictable story arcs. It had the potential to be so much more, wit the exploration of family, societal views, poverty, and self imposed limitations. Much like the protagonist, I feel like the book gave us at best 60% of what it could have.

Matt Nolan does just enough to pass; hence, Mr. Nash, his counselor, dubs Matt Mr. 60%. Mr. Gil, the VP, is out to get Matt–actually he’s out to rid the school of his most notorious drug dealer. However, nothing is as it appears to be–even for Matt. If you liked Holding Smoke, you’ll like this.

4.5 “Crying on the bus” Stars

ARC via NetGalley

Thank you, Crown Books for Young Readers!!!

Sometimes a story will just get under your skin and tug at your heart. Sometimes you won’t even see it coming. That’s what happened with Mr. 60%.

First, let me say I love this title. It’s unique, memorable and it has an important meaning to the story, which always makes me happy. A title that has a clear connection to the story is one of my favorite things ever!

When I started reading Mr. 60%, I was immediately hit by a sense of familiarity. I’ve recently finished another YA book that had a teen drug dealer and an overweight girl as the two main characters, Trust by Kylie Scott. Soon enough, though, I learned these two books were worlds apart. They were both great, but the tone and narrative were completely different.

While Trust is a clear romance-focused book, Mr. 60%’s message is more about dealing with loss, finding hope and surrounding yourself with good people. And, dude, this book is filled with genuinely good people as characters.

The school counselor, Mr. Marsh, for example, is a good, good man. I wish there were more people like him in the world. More people like him working at schools all over the world. The way he didn’t push, but was still there for Matt was brilliant. He’s a clear example of a person who isn’t willing to give up because he wants to make a difference, and he knows how to make a difference. People often get themselves lost in their need to help because they don’t know what to do, but I believe there are many folks out there that are level-headed like Mr. Marsh, and those are the people who should be around teenagers and helping them find their way. Mr. Marsh was a side character, but the amount of love and appreciation I have for him isn’t small at all.

I think I only loved him less than I did Amanda, because there’s no competing with that girl. Amanda will be a phenomenal nurse one day—and yes, I’m talking about her as if she was a real person. Deal with it. I absolutely loved how good and pure and genuine and pretty much perfect she was. She didn’t have anything to gain by helping. There were no promises. No guarantees. She simply did because she wanted to and because she saw someone in need of help. I loved how easy it was for her to fit into Matt and Jack’s life, as if she belonged. And she did. It was all so cohesive and easy and warm. THE FEELS!

Now to Matt and Uncle Jack. Man. The tears. The freaking tears. I have to say that one of my favorite things about this was how these two characters were flawed, but they still charmed me and made me feel so much for them. Uncle Jack wasn’t this perfect father figure, but he was still a father to Matt. A good father and a good uncle and a good man, even though it was implied he’d done some shady things in the past. Same for Matt. He was a freaking drug dealer, so he was far from a conventional good guy. He broke the law left and right, and I’m not even sure if it was all because of his uncle’s situation or if he would’ve gone down that path anyway. But Matt was a lost kid who’d gotten the short end of the stick when it came to life in general, and it seemed like Mr. 60% only needed a little bit of light (Amanda) and guidance (Mr. Marsh) to find a way out of that hole.

While Matt did questionable things, I still wanted to hug him. I wanted to be Amanda’s mom and hug him real tight because he gave me something I need when I read books. He gave me the kind of priceless dynamic I want to see in every story when it came to his relationship with his uncle. I want to see characters who care about each other even when they’re not throwing I love yous around. People who’ll care for each other and be there when needed. People who’ll sacrifice and hurt and make me cry. I’m not a crier, but this book reduced me to a crying mess. I should’ve known better to read the final chapters on the bus.

So while this was a quiet read with no romance (yeah, sorry, but Amanda and Matt are perfectly platonic—yeah, I said perfect, and I’m the biggest romance fan ever), it gave me more than I needed. More than I expected when I started reading. It gave me hope that somewhere out there “Amandas” and “Mr. Marshs” will find their “Matts” and help them out of the dark.

*Amazon review live*

Meet Matt, aka "Mr. 60%", a nickname earned thanks to just-passing grades and Matt’s habit of doing the bare minimum both academically and socially to graduate high school. The only time he engages in conversation is when he's completing a "transaction" with a classmate. Instead, he spends his time looking for more creative places to stash his "merchandise" at school so when his nemesis, the vice principal, and the on-campus cop conduct random drug searches, they turn up nada. Everyone thinks Matt is destined to be a high school dropout, yet what they don't know is that Matt feels like he has no other choice -- he's only selling drugs to pay for medicine to help ease his uncle's pain in the wake of a fatal cancer diagnosis. With his mother in jail, his dad never having been in the picture, and living in trailer #6 at the local trailer park with his dying uncle, Matt has limited options and no one to turn to. When the school board develops a new policy requiring seniors to participate in at least one student activity club in order to graduate, Matt is forced to see he's not as alone as he thought. There just might be a friend he can lean on when times get unbearable. THOUGHTS: Mr. 60% reminds adult readers, educators especially, that our children are more than what we see on the surface, and reminds teen readers that they’re not alone, that a classmate passing them in the hallway might have it worse than they do. Despite its somber tone and overwhelming sense of helplessness readers may feel for Matt, there is still a note of hope throughout the story: the fellow classmate whose offer of friendship helps her just as much as it helps Matt and his uncle, the guidance counselor willing to try over and over again to offer Matt options to help him graduate even though he doesn’t seem to appreciate it, the police officer who keeps trying to warn Matt of his impending future should he not change his drug-dealing ways, among others. My only complaint is the abrupt ending -- the conclusion needed at least one more chapter to feel complete. Teens and adults alike will appreciate the realistic characters and the how real Matt’s life is portrayed, and the short length is perfect for reluctant readers. Recommended for grades 9 and up.

First of all, hooray for books that don't take me 2-months to get through!
With that being said, I did enjoy this sweet and short read.

The book is about a boy named Matt, a teenager rather. He's had a hard life, and to make it worse his uncle, pretty much the only person who has ever cared for, and taken care of him is dying.
Matt does what he has to, to make his uncle's last days as comfortable as he can. This includes running drugs over the border.
Matt is a pretty misunderstood kid. People in the beginning only see him as a burnout, loser and they only talk to him for the drugs. In the end of the book, something changes and he wants to set himself on the right path - one of his uncle's last wishes.
While this book didn't make me cry, it did really well with taking you inside of the trailer with this little family and feeling their pain.
The only thing I didn't like was the ending. It seemed to cut off at a really weird place - and honestly, I'd like more!

Mr. 60% has an entertaining enough premise, something I'd expect to see as the basis of a Lifetime movie special perhaps, but it also has the substance of that sort of movie. That is to say, while you may enjoy the movie or, in this case the book, while consuming it, there isn't enough meat to it to stick with you for long after you've closed the cover.

The main character Matt is dealing drugs in his high school to pay for his uncle's pain management medication due to cancer. Told from his perspective, the seriousness of his responsibilities is felt intensely as he delves deeper into his commitment to his drug supplier in order to not only secure his uncle Jack's morphine, but the money to keep a roof over their heads.

The supporting cast for this book is slight, comprising of Uncle Jack, fellow student Amanda, a smattering of Matt's nameless customers, Vice Principal Gill (out to expel Matt), Officer Hershey (school assigned police officer), & Mr. Marsh (the guidance counselor). Amanda becomes something of a presence in Matt's life due to a school commitment and, through him, a friend of Jack's. Her assistance proves helpful if ultimately futile to Matt's high school career, but her friendship was the important thing. Having support after a devastating loss is one of the few things that I think saves Matt from withering away.

Vice Principal Gill was a complex character. The reader was supposed to hate this "bad guy" who was working hard to expel Matt, but I couldn't blame him. He was a vice principal that was fighting to deal with a drug problem in his school. Matt being the main character doesn't negate the fact that his actions were illegal and morally dubious. Even his inevitable loss of business isn't a solution to Gill's problem because apparently a transfer student swoops in and fills the hole. That school is trouble and I'd have been interested in hearing what happened to the vice principal's efforts to clean it up.

I was shocked that Officer Hersey gave a known drug supplier so many chances and I have to wonder if it was because Matt was white. He got a lot of leeway from the school, what with Officer Hershey and Mr. Marsh giving him warnings about pat downs and busts, for one, not to mention the ease of his border crossings between the U.S. and Canada. Everything in relation to the drug business was skewed in his privileged favor. He even gets out of the business with no repercussions from Big Ed, the supplier. There were no real consequences for him outside of school; this baffled me when I thought back on it.

The emotional output from this book, coming from the relationship between Matt and Jack, was the best part of the novel. While their lives aren't the easiest, what with Matt's childhood alluded to as rough (his mother is jailed for an unrevealed crime) and Jack's vagabond existence until Matt needed him, there was real family bonding there.

There are details lacking and the story doesn't leave a lasting impression, but the time it takes to consume the book isn’t a lot and if you’ve got time to kill, I wouldn’t give this book a hard pass, though I would say borrow it if at all possible.

Do the means justify the ends?

Matt is a “60% student”, this means that he is doing just enough in every class to pass, but never stands out from everyone else. He is known for his drug dealing and even though the principle cannot prove it, he is watching Matt’s every move.

There is a reason for his law breaking and there is a reason for him to try keeping a low profile in school. However, does it justify the drug dealing or other law breaking acts?

I don’t think so.

This is my main concern with this book. It didn’t address the “felonies” properly, as if justifying Matt’s behaviour by what he was going through. Yes, he was struggling. Yes, he was trying to help. But something like that cannot be left uncontested without any sort of consequences.

Other than that, I didn’t really have any big issues with the story. It was very emotional and had many warm moments that made you realise how nice it is to have supportive and positive people in your life.

Full review on: www.whimsypages.wordpress.com (18th of August 2017)

I love young adult books, especially ones that highlight the very real problems that teenagers face. I’m not talking about a bad haircut or not getting a date to the prom. Sure, these are tragic events to most teens. But for many young people, the hardships they face are much more serious.

Matt has had a hard life, and it’s becoming more difficult each day. His much loved Uncle Jack, the only stable force in his life, is in the last stages of cancer. Matt carries the load for his small family of two. In his case, that means dealing drugs at school to make ends meet. It’s easy to judge him for this until you realize he does it to take care of his dying uncle.

Then he meets Amanda. She’s his complete opposite, bubbly and cheerful and eternally optimistic. When he’s unwillingly partnered with her for a class project, he almost can’t handle it. Amanda, however, sees something in Matt that most other people don’t at first glance. And when she finds out the secret she’s keeping, she helps him out more than he could ever expect.

This isn’t a traditional feel good story where everything ends nicely at the end. It’s a good story, though, safe for teens while at the same time showing another perspective of real life. My only complaint is that I was left with more questions than I’d like at the end.

2.75 - 3 stars: Not Bad but Not Amazing

I had such high expectations for this book. The title, Mr. 60%, was the first thing that got my attention. Then I read the premise – it sounded interesting, gritty, and heart-wrenching. I couldn’t wait to finally get into it and was seriously looking forward to “ALL THE FEELS.” Sadly… I ended up having a lot of mixed feelings. There were some good things about this book, but it just didn’t WOW me like I thought it would.

My main problem with this book is the characters. I had such a difficult time connecting with the characters. I like Amanda a lot in the beginning. She’s an outcast, but always so happy and bubbly. She doesn’t let anything or anyone stop her from doing what she loves. Even when she’s rejected and hurt, she still finds a way to keep going. I admired that about her. BUT halfway through… there was just something off about her. I can’t pinpoint what it was, but she came off maybe way too optimistic? I did like Matt but I just didn’t care all that much about him. I don’t know why… I mean I feel like I should. His life is such a big mess. Everyone thinks he won’t succeed. He has to resort to selling drugs just to keep up with bills and medical expenses. Then there’s his uncle, Jack, whose condition is never going to get better and you know the worst is coming at any moment. It’s completely depressing and I’m such an emotional person I should have felt “IT.” I can watch a show halfway through or know nothing about it, but when I see a heartbreaking situation where the characters are crying… I almost always will tear up. This type of stories hit me hard… BUT UGHHHHH this one didn’t.

The plot had potential.. a lot of it, but it just kind of felt flat for me. Cancer is a very sensitive issue. Like I said, I was hoping for that FEELS and barely got any. The writing was just okay for me. I did like that the book was easy to read. I breezed through it in less than 24 hours and couldn’t put it down. That’s a good thing… I think. Or maybe, I just kept going because I was looking for something more. It also felt like the storytelling was missing something. I don’t know… I’m honestly kicking myself right now because I can’t wrap my mind around why this book did not work for me. Oh and that ending…don’t even get me started. It felt rushed and unfinished. I thought there was an epilogue or something, but nope. It was seriously so frustrating.

As disappointing as this was for me, there were a few things I did really like – the relationships, the humor, and the title. I like Matt’s relationship with Jack and I thought it was really admirable what Matt was doing for his uncle. They bickered a lot, but you can tell how deeply they cared about each other. I also really like that Matt and Amanda stayed friends throughout the story. I’m usually all for romance and thought Matt and Amanda are just great for each other, but it’s nice to see boy-girl platonic relationships cause YES boys and girls do not always have to have romantic feelings for each other. Boys and girls can be best friends and just that. I also really enjoyed the sense of humor in this book. The bantering between Matt, Jack and Amanda was refreshing, amusing and endearing. That was definitely a big plus! And the title… I just really love the title. Matt is called “Mr. 60%” for a reason… it’s quite sad really, but I thought it was pretty clever.

Overall, I don’t dislike this book, but it definitely did not work for me. I think that Mr. 60% by Clete Barrett Smith is a decent story with the potential to be amazing and is probably that to other readers, but it just felt dull for me. Maybe I just went into this expecting to feel something and when I didn’t, I ended up being so disappointed that I couldn’t relate to the characters and story anymore. At least I didn’t DNF it and some parts were entertaining.

I loved this book so much! It's heartbreaking,the characters are so good,and it's so well written! It's fast paced and I guarantee you - there is no way you won't read this book in one sitting.

"She didn't know it wasn't a choice. He was alone."


I just found this book so sad and depressing and I could not find it in myself to be able to connect with any of the characters. Though, I did start to feel some of the characters much more midway through the book. The story and the plot was really slow and I cannot find the point of everything that was going on. I was not a fan of the incorporation of drugs into the story. Not my cup of tea.

Amanda's character was perfect. . .maybe too perfect for a story like this. It's not a cliche story but, I guess what I expected was a very cheesy love story, based on the title and how the cover made me feel when I saw it.

In the end, I felt bad for both Matt and Amanda (not exactly sure why). It isn't because I hated this book but more for the fact that I really didn't feel anything that was going on in the book. I am just more of a happy, light, deep person when it comes to books.

I thought this was a very unique and different read. I really enjoyed all the characters, and the plot might be a little fast-paced, but it truly was a great read.

Matt barely scrapes by at school, lives in a trailer park with his uncle who has a lot of medical issues and Matt is also often in trouble at school because of his actions.

His behaviour and grades land him in the Helping Hands group helping out with community tasks as he participates delivering books to the hospital with Amanda a girl who is a member of Helping Hands. With her, he finds a friend and confidant about his uncle's condition and the worse he gets as the cancer slowly drains him and Matt needs support as he faces a big life change.

This book was a work which tested me at times as I hate the idea of drug abuse or misuse, but we see the side of that which is never fully discussed in real life as it may be extremely necessary to people unable to get proper healthcare. Thus, we see Matt in a better light of getting by to help a dying relative which anyone would try to help ease their pain. A moving book that proves friendship can help in the worst of times.

Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!