Things are a bit chaotic in the Jones house at 7:15 am on the first day of school. When the doorbell rings, Carter finds that they have been sent a butler. Grandpa Jones in England has died and left enough money for his gentleman's gentleman to come serve their family in America. Carter's dad is in the military and stationed in Germany so it is just him, his mom and three sisters. Mr. Bowles-Fitzpatrick quickly gets the family settled in to a new routine. This routine includes figuring out who each of them are and making good choices. The butler spends a lot of time working on Carter. This also entails teaching him the game of cricket. Soon there is a cricket team at the school and Carter and his friend are the only sixth graders playing with the eighth grade. 

Throughout the story we also get flashbacks to a camping trip Carter and his father took in Australia. We also find out that Carter's little brother died a couple of years ago when the father was deployed. Then we learn the father is not planning on coming back from Germany where he has found himself a new family. With the butler's help, Carter learns to deal with his feelings of anger and resentment towards his father.

I actually loved the characters of Carter and the butler. They were fantastic and their interactions won my heart. However, there is a lot of cricket in this book which most American readers will not have any knowledge of. I would recommend watching a video on the rules of cricket which I unfortunately did after finishing the book. I really wish I would have watched it as soon as cricket was brought up because I would have understood those passages of the book much better. 

Other than the cricket, the only real thing that bothered me about the book was the fact that Carter is 12 and the butler let him drive his car. Not only did he let him drive the car, but he let him drive with his younger sisters in the car. I think there was also a few times when there wasn't even an adult in the car. Not only is this illegal it is highly irresponsible which did not fit in with everything else the butler did. I get that he was probably trying to instill confidence in Carter but it seemed a strange was to do it.

This book will be published February 2019.