Jack Adrift: Fourth Grade Without a Clue — Jack Gantos

In Jack Adrift, the Henry family sets sail on a new life in Cape Hatteras. Fourth-grader Jack is struggling to chart a course between his father's erratic, headstrong philosophy and his mother's small-town honesty. Just tell people what they want to hear, Dad advises. Just tell the truth, Mom contradicts. But Jack finds there are no easy answers as he drifts through a complex and hilarious year, adopting a duck with backward feet, discovering a luck-making Buddha statue, and falling head over heels for his beautiful and exciting new teacher.