On the one hand, the ending felt contrived. On the other, this is not only a "boy in the wilderness" book, it's also a look at social structures and how they trickle down from adults to children, and multiple versions of grief, from losing a child, to losing a fiance, to an unflinching look at child neglect. All while keeping our protagonist safe enough to be able to be borne. So all in all, a very strong book. 

Seems well written, but a slow coming of age story isn't my cup of tea right now. 

It's a very cute first crush flutters kind of book, but 53 pages in and still nothing at all has happened. I can't take this monotony. 

Fine enough, but kinda trite. If you look closely, the illustrations show that one good deed begets another, eventually coming full circle. 

I"m deeply confused by this book. It's written like a straightforward realistic fiction, but hte animals just keep talking and there are definitely spirits. Still, unlike typical fantasy in which I get used ot the world being presented, it just kept being written as realistic and so kept being confusing when the animals spoke. I'm giving it 3 stars because probably there are cultural components that I missed that would have made this a less confusing read, and also because the story is a good one. 

A deeply emotionally true book at the same time as being an adventure that isn't really about the emotions. Plus a twist at the end that both makes perfect sense and I super didn't see coming. Such a compelling read. Hand to any animal lover, fantasy reader, or maybe just anyone. 

It's supposed to be sweet and light story of friendship, and mostly it is. But it's also a story about how the friend's don't know how to be kind to one another aside from lying to save each other's feelings, and I don't love that. 

Extremely confusing. It reads like a book in verse, all first person present and sentence fragments. But I enjoyed it all the same. Not much story to it, but somehow still very full. I think it tells the story of an adoptee, sort of. 

A solid sequel, with middle school hijinx, a sweet and age appropriate amount of romance, and very nice expanded world building. 

Pirates in flying houses! Wonderfully trope-y with enemies to lovers, false marriage, only one bed, and so on. Love the trope moments. BUT. The sex was so utterly... straight. Vanilla. Boring. I had to skip it, cause it really just gave me the ick. So I gave it a 2 because I enjoyed most of the read and the world building is great, but it's a real bummer to be finally at the climactic scene of the slow burn and not enjoy it.