I would give this 2.5 stars, but there's no way of doing that.

If you hadn't told me this book was by Patricia MacLachlan, I probably could have guessed by the style. I did like the book, and the message. However, I do not think many (if any) fourth graders write like that in the beginning. Secondly, while I understand why the book is so short, for me, it was too short to really delve into the characters. I was especially disappointed with not knowing more about Henry. Why does he need to be the adult? What does that mean? Why does he worry about holding everything together?

I don't know. It was a quick read, and I did enjoy it, but I'm not sure I would recommend it as a best book of 2010, which Amazon.com did.