Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

It’s never fun to be in the minority and I really hate saying negative things about someone’s hard work; however, as a parent, I appreciate reviews good and bad as they help me get a better picture of the book. It should also go without saying that not every book works for every person! I wanted to check this book out to see if it would be a good book suggestion for one of my children. I had heard great things about it and it’s been nominated for some awards, so maybe my expectations going in were too high, but this didn’t work for me and I didn’t even finish the book. I was pretty much bored out of my mind from the beginning. Every now and then I’d get a glimmer of hope that things were picking up, but it never stuck. Generally speaking, I always stick with it in hopes that it’ll get better and perhaps have a redeeming ending, but after over 200 pages, I just couldn’t slog thru anymore. This story is centered around a girl (Coyote) and her dad (Rodeo) who basically are running away from the death of her mom and two sisters, instead of dealing with their grief. In a school bus. And picking up strangers along the way. The strangers all have their own issues, of course. I felt that some of the topics in this are not appropriate for “middle grades.” Teens? Sure. But not 8-12yr olds. One of the issues is physical abuse. Another worth mentioning regardless of where you stand on the issue, is a female character who is gay. She is kicked out of her home and she talks about having a crush on another girl. These are important topics and maybe you’d be fine reading this with your child so you can discuss them. But this is not a book I’d be comfortable having my child read on their own. Grief needs to be addressed and the idea of inviting countless strangers into your car/home (it was their home in this story) is not something to be championed in a child’s book. I understand kindness and friendship are overarching themes, but there are better and more appropriate ways to accomplish this.