I found a hard copy of this book at a library sale. Checked reviews and saw it was highly rated. Audio on Hoopla, and Kindle copy at the xlibrary. I wanted a quick read with a male MC (narrator), so this shifted up my list. My boys and I really enjoyed the Hatchet series, and I wondered if this would be along the same lines. It wasn't really. There was some survivalist stuff, but unlike Hatchet (city boy lost in the wilderness trying to survive) this was wild boy forced into the city, trying to survive. I think part of my partiality toward Hatchet, it that my boys (especially my #4) really liked it. I have to wonder what he'd think of this ... (unfortunately he's older now, and hasn't gotten much reading in).

I just never fully connected to the characters and the story ... I followed it fine. Simple and straightforward. 1st person/past tense. At the beginning, the timeline is a little skewed (starts right off talking about how Pap died, moves into some memories of the months prior). It catches up and then stays chronological for the remainder of the story. Besides Moon (and a bit of Pap), there's the store owner (really, the only contact for father and son for years), the lawyer who bought the property, two boys at the group home, and a horrible police officer. The story starts in the woods, then Moon gets taken to a boy's home, then back to the woods, then back to the city ... it was interesting to see Moon adjust, and start to realize that maybe everything Pap told him wasn't "the way" and that other alternatives might be better. The irony of Pap staying away from "the gvment" and then the boys wanting Moon to be "their president" ... of realizing he didn't want to be alone, even if that meant disobeying his dad. That there were both good and bad people out there.

I see it's been made into the movie ... I watched the preview, and from what I could see, it seems like it stayed pretty true to the book (not highly rated on IMDB, and looked pretty low budget (the only actor I recognized was John Goodman, playing the lawyer). The preview, and my feelings toward the story, didn't make me want to watch it.

I peeked at another youtube, a teacher reading it to her class (3rd or 4th grade) and she mentioned that it was a favorite with the kids. While I didn't love it myself, I wouldn't doubt that maybe kids would like it.