I would give this book a 3.5. I was recommended to this book by a highschooler I work with. It was one of his assigned readings, so I was curious as to what kind of books they were reading in English class these days! Memory loss, living on the streets, street violence, substance abuse, prostitution, domestic violence.....all this included in a highschool read. Things have sure changed....

Overall, it was well written, interesting, relevent to society today and produced an important message. I can see why it was picked for an English class.

( )

"The poem was called "Goblin's Market."

The words were things you could hold; they had weight and shape and smell: fruits, lick, melon, golden. ...When he read this poem, it was easy to see why his own wasn't working, wasn't finding Daniel, or home."

It's interesting to me that Martine Leavitt, who has seven children - seven children! Shouldn't that indicate considerable stability? - writes about unpredictability with such passion. Tom is 15 and can't remember anything except how to run. In his running he encounters Samuel Wolflegs, a broken medicine man, who tells him he is a Finder. Tom finds a pen and a notebook and (shades of Harold's Purple Crayon) begins to write himself a life, a personality, a world, and ultimately, a future.

So maybe the unpredictability and the instability that Leavitt writes about is really...well, about writing. About never knowing what will jump out of your pen next. ( )