This is the story of Amadeo, who wants to discover something that will bring him fame. When he begins working for Mrs. Zender, he hopes to find a treasure of some kind among her dusty old things, but he is also looking for friendship. Egh. I disliked this book intensely, but I can't muster up enough emotional reaction to it to actually say I hated it.

The plot moves sooooooo slow. I kept waiting and waiting for something to happen. Finally, towards the end of the middle, they find the drawing, and finally finally after a long drawn-out bunch of nothing, we find out the mystery of the drawing, which is another long bunch of extra stuff that I didn't really care about. The end was so incredibly under-whelming.

The characters are supposed to be quirky and interesting, but I find them boring. I just don't care about any of them. Some of them are nice, I suppose, but I don't like any of them. They are so rude and snappy to each other, and everyone is circling tentatively around everyone else.

I can't figure out why William and Amadeo are friends. All they do is nitpick and fuss at each other. There is not a single conversation between them that says to me, "Ah, these two are good friends!" Their dialogue is acidic, and they pick on each other.

Peter is especially boring. What is his problem? He can be overly dramatic, but no one else is allowed to. He just has to be the center of attention at all times. egh. He's annoying.

Why do I keep reading this author's books? I never like her books. I like her writing style, but I hate her plots and characters. The only one that I have ever liked, out of all her work, is [b:From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler|3980|From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler|E.L. Konigsburg|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327784751s/3980.jpg|1384549].