I went ahead and read my copy again. It’s not as bad as the amazon reviewer thought. The dialogue of the main characters is hard to believe. One of the two main characters, a first grader, says things like “You can’t argue with my logic.” Back in first grade I remember saying things along the lines of “Ma and me goed to the store today.”
Bad analogy: It’s like when I was in 10th grade when Smallville started. Tom Welling was supposed to be a freshman–it makes people near the character’s age feel bad and wonder why I’m struggling to grow a mustache while 9th-grade Superman looks super manly.
Pun intended. In both cases, it doesn’t take away from the bigger picture–this book is good and I’d be hard-pressed to think of anything as riveting as Smallville’s first season. The two kids in the book run away for a week on a little less than $30. Of course, the value of money is skewed by the children’s point of view and the era of the plot. Everything sounds cheap but the kids are real tightwads.
A simple calculator shows $30 translating to about $170 today. Why does a first grader have this much money? Still, Rachel Ray needs $40 a day and these kids survived a week on about $12 a day. Soldiers.
Great story.