Review: My personal thoughts & feelings on this book
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 2, 2013
I found this story to be sad and true, based on my own personal experiences as a young child.  At 5 to 9 years old, I was molested by my father's best friend and then passed around when ever he baby sat me, which was quite often as my parents traveled alot.  On more than one occasion I tried to tell my parents but they did not believe me and I was punished with my G/F's razor strap!  I learned to keep my mouth shut after that!Later on @ 11 yrs. old I met and had a long time sexual afair with a new neighbor boy also 2 years older then me. At 17 yrs. old his dad was transferred to San Diego, CA. and I cried to myself for for days, he was my protector, my best friend, my confidant, etc.  To this day we are still in contact with each other, both of us are gay and have been in long term relationships.  Jim for 29 years and myself for 25 years.  My better half and I are the same age and Jim and his partner are two years apart.I found this book to be a hard read at times and shed many tears, the strugles to over come the bullies, the name calling, the learning problems, the over bearing and eratic teachers, etc. is terrible and to this day I do not understand why parents/teachers do not stress it enough to be understanding and kind to other kids, they must remember how it was for them growing up!  Not all of us were born blond, blue eyed and perfect, most of us had acne, secrets, fears and struggled to understand all that was happening to us, around us and to our bodies as we matured and grew!  Some were lucky to matured alot faster than others, learned subjects in school alot easier, while dealing with the mysteries of our body, mind and everything else! Others of us took awhile longer to catch up!I feel that this author did an outstanding job of describing the truth of the matter and dealt with the slowness of maturing for one child, the over protective best friend and the sexual contex in a truthfull and honest way.  (Based on my own personal experiences anyway)  We can't ban all materials because they may or may not give someone their jollies, if that were the case; then all advertisements/bill boards/store adds, etc. showing children/pre-teen & teenage boys in underware, men in their underware and women/girl's & teenage girls in bra's, panties, slips and nylons need to be included in that ban, because someone some where will get their jollies one way or the other! Oh and let's not forget the ladies high heal's either, those adds are so enticing, yeah right.That's my opinion anyway.  I hope that you will down load this book and read it for what it is; a well written story about pre-teen's growing up, friendship/bonding and experiencing their first sexual encounter and the journey they take down the road of life after. No one's life is perfect, we all have experienced the up's and downs while growing up.  Some of us more than other's, but in the end, it's life and we make of it what we can and if we are lucky, we can toss the rest of the junk down the drain.  Jon