Digital List Price:	$9.99
Kindle Price:	$7.99 Save $2.00 (20%)
Sold by:	Amazon.com Services LLC

Promotions apply when you purchase

Add an

audiobook with Audible narration for $7.49

Audiobook Price: $9.77

Save: $2.28 (23%)

Read with our free app

You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.

Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

There was an error. We were unable to process your subscription due to an error. Please refresh and try again.

Follow the author

M. E. Kerr

+ Follow

More books from this author

Gentlehands Kindle Edition

by M. E. Kerr (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.4 48 ratings

Part of: Harper Keypoint Book (3 books)

See all formats and editions

Sixteen-year-old Buddy Boyle makes a shattering discovery about his family in this powerful and poignant novel by award-winning author M. E. Kerr
Buddy Boyle lives with his parents and younger brother in a small house on a half-acre of land in undesirable Seaville, New York. Skye Pennington spends her summers on the opposite end of town on five acres with a view of the ocean. Buddy’s dad is a police sergeant; Skye’s is the head of a multi-million-dollar industry.
But none of that stops Buddy and Skye from falling in love. To impress her, Buddy takes Skye to visit his aristocratic grandfather in Montauk. Frank Trenker is Buddy’s mother’s father, a man she never talks about. Just as Buddy feels he’s getting to know his estranged grandfather, reporter Nicholas De Lucca shows up. For three years, he’s been searching for a notorious Nazi war criminal known as Gentlehands. When De Lucca uncovers a shocking connection to Buddy’s grandfather, Buddy refuses to believe the accusations.
One of M. E. Kerr’s very best novels, Gentlehands tells a spellbinding story of love, loyalty, and the family you thought you knew.
This ebook features an illustrated personal history of M. E. Kerr including rare images from the author’s collection.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When a newspaper story claims that Buddy Boyle's grandfather is a former Nazi, the ensuing chaos threatens the boy's familial ties and a romantic relationship. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“Kerr at her provocative best.” —School Library Journal

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00GXSGC2I
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media Teen & Tween; Reprint edition (December 17, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 17, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3174 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 200 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #870,521 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #257 in Teen & Young Adult Fiction about Being a Teen (Kindle Store)
- #674 in Teen & Young Adult Coming of Age Fiction eBooks
- #883 in Teen & Young Adult Fiction about Friendship

Customer Reviews:
4.4 48 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

M. E. Kerr

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

48 global ratings

2 star

0%

1 star

3%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Tracy Phillips

Perfect for Youth

Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2014

Verified Purchase

I read this book when I was around 13. I enjoyed it very much. It's about a boy growing into a man. It teaches you so many different things. About judgement. Tolerance. I bought it on my kindle to share with my kids. They also enjoyed the book. I'd recommend this book to young adults as well as adults everywhere. Most suited to young adults as it is a coming of age book.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

newfly

prompt delivery

Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2013

Verified Purchase

The book was delivered very quickly. The only drawback was that it was more worn than I had expected, but as a required summer reading book that will be ok.

Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2021

Verified Purchase

Such a good book! A very nice short read!
I read it in an afternoon! I couldn't put it down!

Helpful

tom reck

A classic book for young adult literature. Have used ...

Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2015

Verified Purchase

A classic book for young adult literature. Have used it for years. One of the most frequently read books in my Adolescent Literature class. Rated favorably year after year.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

A. Luciano

Another Holocaust Angle

Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2007

Buddy Boyle lives in a pretty middle-class average place, with his parents and his younger brother. His mother's father lives close by in the next town over, but they never communicate with him. He was never a real father to Buddy's mother; she was an accident and he didn't stay around to watch her grow up. By chance they live so close.

Buddy was never interested in his grandfather until he started dating Skye, a beautiful rich girl who spends her summers in town by the ocean. Buddy knows that his family couldn't possibly impress this wonderful girl, but he remembers from his one visit to his grandfather that he lives in a nice home on the ocean filled with fine things. So Buddy brings Skye there to see him.

Immediately Buddy and Skye both fall in love with Buddy's grandfather. He is sophisticated; he knows about wine and opera. His home is filled with fine and expensive things. He takes care of the animals that live near his home. He seems the epitome of culture and grace, and Buddy and Skye start spending a great deal of time with him. Buddy feels like his grandfather can teach him all sorts of things about fitting into Skye's world that he couldn't learn at home.

Buddy's parents are not thrilled about his newfound relationships with his grandfather and with Skye, but they don't stop him. That is, until a nasty rumor starts spreading about Buddy's grandfather. Could he really be who people say he is?

The ending of this story was really good. It fit in well with the rest of the story. I also liked that the grandfather was made so appealing; it forced me to reconsider my views on the goodness of people. However, I disliked Buddy intensely. He wasn't nice to his family, especially his little brother, and so I found it hard to sympathize with him or root for him throughout the story.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Alexandra der

An interesting read

Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2002

This book began as the typical young adult novel, a good looking boy falls for the rich, classy and beautiful girl, but somehow, the author managed to pull it off in the end.
Buddy Boyle is young and immature to the ways of the world. But when Buddy meets Skye Pennington, he realizes that there is a whole other world, and it has class. Unfortunately for Buddy, he lives in a middle class lifestyle and has nothing to impress Skye with (since all boys seem to have a need to impress their girlfriends) So Buddy takes Skye to meet his wealthy and estranged grandfather.
I enjoyed this book because it is quite different from most of the books that I've read before. I am more into historical fiction type books and although this book may seem like that type, the theme is mainly concerning discrimination. I've never read a book about the holocast, and this book gave an interesting point of view. At one point in this book, I really felt like crying because of how cruel some people can be. This book touched me on a real emotional level surprisingly since it started out quite differently. The symbolism is wonderful. The grandfather talks about how all birds are prisoners of their own territory and yet he always feeds the birds. I thought Gentlehands was marvelous, but the only reason I did not give it 5 stars is because it ended rather abruptly. It's one of my pet peeves when books end too quickly, and this book did. But give this book a chance, it gets boring at some parts, but it really is a great book and has a great lesson: that the past is all in the past.

9 people found this helpful

Helpful