Welcome to Litsy!

Toby lives in a small town where not much goes on until Zachary Beaver, the fattest kid on earth rolls in.

Don‘t mind me… Just having a little Kimberly Willis Holt book fest over here. Three sweet, sorrowful, southern stories. Read the tagged book and Louisiana Sky many many years ago but both were worth a re-read. @Eggs

#FebruaryFeels Day 22: This #SpinePoem2 featuring the “apocalypse” is what she calls it - is made by Fats. More here: https://wp.me/pDlzr-3yd

This one didn't hit me the way My Louisiana Sky did. Everything felt very surface; Holt tackles many typical middle grade themes here (plus Vietnam) but I wouldn't describe this as the book for any of them. There are deeper books about divorce, outsiders, budding relationships and rejection, friendship, loss, war, and class. Yes, this book tries to be about all of those things. This is more negative than I intended - it's a good, not great book.

I thought I'd throw in a slightly older award winning book for today's #booktober prompt. National Book Award winner & well worth it (I am glad I wasn't picking books that year...if I had to choose between this book & Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak, I don't know if I could have made a choice...both are so good!). I originally bought it in paperback, but couldn't resist picking up this ex-library hardcover a few years back.

This unique story made me very uncomfortable. Ultimately, in a good way. The weaknesses each character has, and how they get through that summer together, left me thinking about my own personal weaknesses. Good summer read!