A classic tale for children and teens. It is also a beautiful, albeit sad, story about growing up wheter you want to or not. It should be required reading for al middle school age children. I am in my eighties and still enjoyed it. Well written, factual and beutifully told. It shows that bad things happen but we can grow out of the ashes and move on.

There have been objections made because of language. Facee it people, 5th graders are little anials trying to become people. They say the wrong things and forget it the next minute. Admittedly the heroine's parents are not Christian parents, or really parents at all, but the Lord seems to have brought this girl into the life of this boy to bring him into the Light for himself and his sister. Don't question how God works even if it is not your way. His ways are higher.... Some of the greatest literature of the world offends the Christian sensibilities but as with fairy tales, you label them as inappropriate and fictiuonal and get the most out of them.

All my children loved this story!

My 4th grade son had to read this book in his Christian school.

The book uses the Lord's name in vain a lot! It also had swear words in it my son was unaware of. I stopped reading it with him when we got to the word b***h. The Christian parents are ignorant, unhappy and distant parents. The liberal non- believing parents are fun great parents. Spoiler alert-The only friend the boy has, a girl dies with out becoming a Christian. She is in 5th grade so it brings up the whole age of accountability issue. It has been on the ALA most banned or challenged books for the last 20 years. We were lucky because our Headmaster pulled the book when I brought it to his attention.

This is a book that contains blasphemy from the main character in dialogue. Warning to any other Christians that do not want to buy a product that contains blasphemy against the King of Kings. Thankfully this was established after the first chapter. I was reading this book out aloud to my child and was caught off guard. May this warning help any others who love the Lord.