The story is slow, and more or less an internal story about a nice kid who is growing up. Other readers seemed to have the same reactions to this that I did. That said, maybe it's a selling point that the book is completely not scary? I know a lot of kids who get stressed out by suspense and adventure, and the fact that this is so quiet may be appealing to them. I think only kids who ruminate a lot will want to read this, but I don't think a kid under 8 will GET it, and will older kids want to read about a younger one? That's a small window of readership. My own very-much-in-her-head 9-year-old will love it, I think, but the fact that there's no big sweeping external drama and there's really only one kid in the book (the 10-year-old narrator - OK, there's also an unlikeable, uncute 5-year-old) may turn a lot of young readers off. I do worry that this very short novel (I would say novella but after reading that Eudora Welty hated the word novella, I try not to say novella b/c what if I accidentally insult some novelist who hates the word novella? GAH) will have a hard time finding an audience. Nothing HAPPENS - the book is all about the emotions and tiny changes in our female protagonist's head - but it's so real and so touching and so momentous despite being writ so small. Another Goodreads reviewer compared it to Mrs.
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