Purchased to help my team prepare for the Reading Olympics. It was the favorite book of several of the kids on the team. Contributing to spacedog's Newbery Medal/Honor bookrings. I'll read it when it gets home.

Here's the ring order:
bookhunter21
tuff517
spacedog
dancing-dog
yokaye
Rosalinde---->it's here!
knitwit

Received today with The Grey King for the third round of the Newbery bookrings. Thanks for sending these.

Beautiful book. The characterizations were wonderful. I have a vivid recollection of Summer, Ob, Cletus, and May, their personalities revealed in very few words. I think Ob's turnaround was pretty quick, but believable. I like how all the characters want to take care of each other. I like the scene where Ob and Summer meet Cletus's parents and Summer realizes how loved this strange boy is. I felt a connection to Cletus and his great admiration for the West Virginia capitol. I drive past the Minnesota capitol everyday and feel the same way about it. Wish I could see Ob's 'gigs one day.

Sent today, August 23, to Dixie.

Received Thursday, starting tomorrow.

A sad little book. It seems books like this always veer a little off from the mainstream, which is nice. It's okay to be confused and weird and sometimes older people have nothing left to keep going for. The Whirligigs were a nice touch, as was Cletus. Things sometimes do come to a stop when someone important dies, it's nice to see a children's book acknowledge that. This book was very prosaic, written simply and caringly. Thanks for sharing!

received today. will prob. start it in the next few days.

finished this yesterday. it seems like a lot of these newbery books have a very similar feel to this one. (and why are all these books written by women and the protagonists girls? guys can be sensitive too! ;) however, this one was my fav. of the ones i've read so far. short, but the poor, west virginia setting is vivid and the serious topic, esp. with its focus not on the child so much as on the husband of the woman who died, is handled well.

thanks. will be mailing tomorrow.

Received in the mail this morning along with some cute cartoon stickers from spacedog - thanks! :=D

Will start in a couple days after my current book.

Liked this book. For me the lessons shown in this story were that people do not always grieve in the same way or in fact react to any circumstances in the same way and that life is not always the way you think it should be but you need to be open to possibilities. I was glad in the end that Summer was beginning to see Cletus' good qualities and that she was able to express her own grief. A very straight-forward and simply stated story but full of deep emotion just under the surface. My only minor criticism is that it is short - I wasn't quite prepared for it to end when it did. Thanks knitwit for putting this one in the rings!

Mailed today to Yokaye along with The Grey King

delivery confirmation #: 0306 1070 0004 9348 9877

(you know I think I'm paranoid now about the books going from me to yokaye ever since that one set got lost!)

Arrived safe and sound today :) This one looks like it's going to be a good read, I should be able to start it get to it this weekend. thanks!

With the hectic schedule of the holidays, I didn't get to this one as quick as I would have liked, but it was worth the wait.

All in all, this is a book I'd highly recommend. Simple, but honest, this book left me feeling a touch sad but with a light heart.

This is a moving story about loss, grief and acceptance. It provides the idea that everyone has a different outlet for grief, and it's ultimately a comforting story. The story is realistic, especially the ending. It was shorter than I expected, but I think it ended in exactly the right place.

I loved the friendship between Cletus and Ob - and how it led to a friendship with him and Summer. It's interesting to me how 'weird' he was...as adults we look back and see something special in kids like that, but like Summer, a kid the same age would see it as odd and unappealing rather than charming and eccentric.

Will be sending on after reading The Grey King (which I started this morning)

Received today along the The Grey King. Looks like another sad one.

I finished this awhile ago, while I was down with a fever. (Don't worry, I use hand sanitizer!) Coming back to the story now, it seemed very sad. Uncle Ob was depressed and Summer was probably as well. They were missing May. I wonder if the author was making a play on words with May's name - that they were missing the springtime of life as well.

I'm almost finished with the Gray King then I'll send it back to knitwit!