Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Trouble

Trouble by Gary Schmidt
Fourteen-year-old Henry, wishing to honor his brother Franklin's dying wish, sets out to hike Maine's Mount Katahdin with his best friend and dog. But fate adds another companion--the Cambodian refugee accused of fatally injuring Franklin--and reveals troubles that predate the accident.

4 comments:

librarycat said...

This is the best one yet! I had a hard time putting it down. It may be a bit too intense for younger readers, even though the main character is a 7th grader. The book deals with a lot of issues--among them grief, prejudice, friendship, and forgiveness. There is kind of a "story behind the story" that is a little confusing at first, but the details all fall into place at the end. **** 4 1/2 stars. cherylw

Kathleen Foucart said...

This book has my vote for every award out there. It was absolutely fantastic, I've been raving about it everywhere. It's completely outside of everything I normally read, but I couldn't put it down. It is definitely more along the lines of YA than Middle Grade, but I don't see that as a detriment at all.

Anonymous said...

...this smart, literary character study/mystery is a book worth lingering over and quoting from. Whatever you do, don’t let the humdrum earth-tone cover dissuade you from digging into the crackin’ good story underneath.

La-la said...

I felt the book lagged a bit in the beginning but the story grew more complex as it progressed. I thought the book a bit intense for the younger readers, more of an older teen book, even though the characters are younger. Many issues are dealt with, prejudice being the strongest, which is shown on both sides of the story, which I found very 'real life'. There are also issues of trust, friendship, anger.. I am giving this one 4 1/2 stars.