The first time I read this book, I was eight, and I have loved it ever since. I was cross-eyed and wore thick glasses and an eye patch to fix my vision till I was ten, and this was the first and only book I've ever read that had a cross-eyed main character.
This book lives in the vibrancy of childhood where the world is beautiful, magic is possible, and there's endless possibility in everything. Ruth White masterfully writes about issues like grief, suicide, poverty, and bullying, wrapped up in a transfixing story that pulls readers into Woodrow and Gypsy's lives, joys, and troubles in a way that feels like they're the reader's own.