Review: Teen forward thinking, lesson learning story
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 27, 2013
A book written by an author who knows much about middle school aged boys,and how to touch the soul of whoever reads this book!  I have a daughter and a son, and feel that this story would have spoken to both when they were at all levels of education (Middle through HS).Mystery,suspense, sadness, love are all here in this wonderful story.The boy named Shelton seems one with nature, and it takes the main character some time to realize this is not odd, and he learns wonderful lessons from his friend.My daughter and I would lay in the grass at times, and look at the stars. No one needed to know or care, but we enjoyed looking for constellations,and just enjoying the beauty created by nature.  I would encourage every parent of every child to go with the flow, while providing all materials, classes, trips to wherever your child has an interest, wherever it takes you. Imagination is a wonderful thing!This story is one you want to know more about, and can't wait until the next chapter is available, as you want to read it as soon as it comes out! I hope most people who have read this feel the same way, as many have problems fitting in,for whatever reason:  some move often, some are not as involved as others in sports or arts, and trying to find their own way, and all adults need to realize that it takes some children longer to find their way than others.As a child who moved many times, ending up going to two High Schools,I now feel it helped make me be a stronger person. I would never have chosen it, as I might now have true lifelong friends...While this story is about a boy, it could be about a girl as well.  In my mind, every child benefits from having a pet, and this dog is accepting of everyone, and a bonding force between the two boys in this story. A pet can be a stabilizing force.  A constant in their life, and can assist in the adjustment to any new situation, as well as creating a responsibility for that pet, which they will carry though life.For me, beside these two young boys pairing up, as neither were accepted by the 'crowd', I zoned in on the Buddha quote, which has nothing to do with religion, but about real life!  "IF YOU GIVE A MAN A GIFT, AND HE DOES NOT ACCEPT IT, THEN WHO OWNS IT?" Everyone should read this, and take it into their own life.  This book, in my mind, was not written just for children, or just for boys either, but for everyone to learn some lessons about the living of life overall.To me, it's a lesson for young people ( but older as well),that you do not have to be part of the crowd/status quo, but be yourself and create your own life. Many, many very successful people have not gone by the 'rules', but created their own, and are very successful: Bill Gates, Thomas Edison, and many others. In my mind, this book,and it's author, may perhaps wish to show how the many differences in thinking and perception of situations overall, and the interpretation of any (one set of variables) one situation, and how many ideas and truths can come from just one situation, as, in fact, everyone who enters into the situation can change the outcome...In the end, I felt happy that these two boys, from very different backgrounds, could bond together in a new neighborhood, even though to begin with, one wanted to shun the other, UNTIL he, himself was shunned by the baseball crowd he tried to butt into.What I love about this book is the theme of fighting against the system, being more alike than not, and winning against the odds, taking lessons learned forward in life...