Helpful Score: 4
This is a beautiful book from the author of "What's Eating Gilbert Grape." Scotty is a seven-year-old whose mother simply ups and leaves after his 7th birthday. The mother is no prize, she is totally focused on herself and her art (and on drinking it appears) but he loves her as all 7 year old boys love their mothers. Scotty's pain is not eased by the withdrawal of his older sisters and his father who are coping in their own ways. So Scotty copes by pouring all of his energy into his search for his mother. The book is heartbreaking in the way of "What's Eating Gilbert Grape", but like that book (and the excellent movie adaptation) it is also filled with the purity of love and hope. Though not humorless in the least, this is not a comic romp. It is a serious story that will make you think about the true meaning of love, and pain and the costs of promises broken versus promises withheld. I cannot say enough good things about this one
Helpful Score: 1
All little Scotty Ocean wants, is to be seven. But when seven brings the biggest challenges of his short life - he doesn't know what he wants. A great story of family dysfunction and the ripples it creates, through the eyes of a seven-year-old. By the author of What's Eating Gilbert Grape - it shares the same deep understanding and honesty with the traumas regular old life hands out.
