Small as an Elephant: Week of 4/21/14

Pages: 54-End
Prompt: What's your opinion on the book?

      This is an excellent story! I really loved the plot line, and the story in general- I had a hard time putting down this book!

  The characters are life-like and believable.  Jack, while being a child, seems more mature than his mother.  He understands what is acceptable in society, and also realizes that when his mother gets a little "out of it", he has a chance of being separated from her by the authorities.  He understands the implications of bad actions; he strives to always be good, and to help his mother with her mental problems.  He can’t completely control his mother, however, and she does get a little loopy at times.  This is not the first time that she has left Jack anywhere, but he understands that it’s up to him to get back home and find his mother, before she says or does something stupid and gets them separated for good.  Jack has been separated from his mother before; the government found out about his mother taking him out of school for no reason at all, and other not-quite-normal things she’d done with him regarding school and care-taking.  When that happened, Jack was taken away from his mother and sent  to the only other family he had - his loving grandmother.  While Jack is eventually returned to his mother, it's clear that there's an awkward gap between his mother and grandmother. 

     It is because of all this that Jack is my favorite character - he understands that one must deal with what one is given. He is mature for his age, and he figures out very interesting ways of staying alive while he’s on his own.  His mother and grandmother, likewise, are very believable and life-like; their actions, while not always justified and good, were understandable and something I’d expect a real person to do.  I also really like the setting of the story.  The author makes the state of Maine (along with some other various states in the USA) come to life; having never visited there myself, after reading this story, I feel like I’ve been on vacation there for a week.  While descriptive, the author is not very wordy - he states what needs to be stated in a clear, clean, and concise way.

     Though Jack has been smart through out the story, he is a character that has really made me feel for him.  His mother abandoned him, and he had to stay strong, and decided not to ask for help along the way.  I wish he would've at some points just asked for help; i didn't want to see him get hurt.  I think that's why I really like this story so much! Because the characters were so real and believable, that I could really feel them.  Jack really made me feel something, which made the story even more amazing.  He made me feel sad and scared for him, while absolutely loving him at the same time.  He made me think, he made me smile, he made me nervous, but I thought he was amazing either way!  I would never be able so survive on my own for over a week, in a place I was completely unfamiliar with, at 11 years old.  Jack is so brave, and smart and I think he's an absolutely great kid who would never deserve to be abandoned by anyone.  I look at him like a real person because he seems so life like, and that's why my feelings about him were so real.  I took his character extremely literally and even though I know he is not real, I looked at Jack like a real person!

     Though I sometimes did not agree with the decisions Jack made, I still loved the book.  Obviously I wouldn't want Jack to make some of the decisions that got him into trouble, but then this story wouldn't be a story, and wouldn't be very  interesting if it could be one.  I wish Jacks mother hadn't abandoned him and he never got in trouble or had to live like he did, like any reader would think, but that's what made the story so interesting!  The details and the characters and the setting and the decisions wouldn't have brought the story together in any better way, and sometimes a little trouble doesn't hurt!  I mean I could go on and on telling you how much I honestly enjoyed this book but I'm starting to get redundant so I think I'm going to end here!

     Overall, this is a fun and heartfelt story and an emotional journey with a young boy who only wants to find his mother, but is afraid of letting anyone know he’s alone.  I think I could enjoy this story over and over again because I simply loved it so much.  So, that's my opinion on the story, and all of the different things I ioved about it!