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Sep 03, 2014
By the end of this book I was convinced Ty might be a real person who reacted realistically to situations and surroundings, displaying the appropriate frustration and accompanying inappropriate responses to feeling ignored at home due to a new baby in the house and to ruffians and rough social dynamics at school. At the beginning of the book, though, well, let me share a quote from Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane: "I was a normal child. Which is to say, I was selfish and I was not entirely convinced of the existence of things that were not me, and I was certain, rock-solid unshakably certain, that I was the most important thing in creation. There was nothing that was more important to me than I was." I found that dynamic too utterly lacking in Ty and had trouble believing any seven-year-old could be so sweet, aware, and altruistically natured. And I wonder if that might keep young readers from being able to relate to him as narrator and protagonist. Aside from my perhaps cynical quibble that Ty is just a bit too good to be true, though, I think this is a fun book that young readers will enjoy.