DNF around page 90 and skimmed the rest. I just could not get into this book. I almost NEVER quit reading a book, even if I am not really enjoying it. But I just could not get through this. Every other page is a new chapter and the flow feels disjointed because of this. Also, the writing style didn't work at all for me. When the author wasn't using choppy, short sentences and fragments, she was using long run-on sentences that were grammatically suspect.

Example:
"And they knew that Ben's favorite kind of ice cream wasn't ice cream at all, it was rainbow sherbet, and he always a green first, and so when I saw it in my grandma's freezer once and I started crying they didn't even ask why and I think I saw my uncle Nick my mom's brother crying too."

And:

"It's a tree name because my dad grew up in the Pacific Northwest and there was this huge old cedar tree in his yard and for some reason he thought that it would be a great name for his kid, boy or girl, and my mom liked it too, and he always joked that's how he knew he'd found the right person."

I'm not sure why the author made the narrative/structural choices she did, but I found it difficult to become immersed in the story.

I'm pretty disappointed that I didn't connect with this story or the characters. I understand that this is a middle-grade book, but I've been able to appreciate many middle-grade books in the past, so I don't think it's because I'm too old to enjoy it.