Review: A Good Read
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 21, 2013
Little Joe, book 1 in the Round Rock Series is set in the 1940's during World War II. The book starts with Little Joe becoming an orphan due to a car crash that he was in with his parents. Little Joe ends up in Round Rock, Tennessee with his mother's parents.Little Joe has trouble adjusting to farm life, and the cold winter weather of Tennessee. All he wants to do is go back to Corpus Christi, Texas where he used to live. Little Joe's grandparents do the best they can by Little Joe, but he finds them more strict than his parents, expecting him to do chores, and refusing to prepare him different food than what they are eating. His choice is to eat the greasy, unappetizing food presented to him or not eat. " "At least drink your milk, son. You'll get used to country cooking eventually. And you'll eat when you get hungry enough," she said"I had a hard time liking Little Joe's grandmother at first. Frances Washington often appeared to boss her husband Persifor around, and like a meek little man, he would do what he was told. She seemed to spend most of her day sitting in a rocking chair, reading books and smoking.  I liked that she taught Little Joe racism is wrong when she helped the Chinese man that was being beaten up by the village's riffraff and when she asked her Pastor if they could arrange for the choir from the colored Baptist church come to sing at their Christmas Day service. When denied this request, she, Persifor and Little Joe went to the Christmas service at the colored Baptist church.I empathized a lot with Little Joe. Though I have not lost either of my parents, I can imagine how hard it must have been, to suddenly be removed from city life in a busy household and lots of friends, to the quiet country life that his grandparents lived.I liked that Little Joe's friends, Sugar and Bobby would have been marginalized in that society. Bobby is a black boy who attends a segregated school and Sugar is pretty much a tom-boy who prefers pants to dresses. The three of them are loyal friends who get into several scrapes and adventures together.The book had a good pace and during the final climax of the book in which Little Joe nearly loses his life, he finally realizes how much his grandparents love him and how much he loves them. As he looks back at the year that he has spent with them, he recognizes that he isn't longing for home any more. He is home. Home is where your friends and loved ones are.This was a great story with a lot of truth in it. It's a story that can be read by adults and youth alike. I give this book 5 stars.Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC (Advance Reader Copy)  in exchange for my fair and honest review.  A free product does not influence my opinion. All thoughts are my own.