It's a book about growing up, told from the perspective of a girl in small town Kansas as she moves from elementary school to college. I like reading books like this. My last two perspective-y books like this were Room by Emma Donoghue and Crossing California by Adam Langer.

The reading level is not very challenging. And it is a bit odd to find something like a classroom friendly Discussion Guide at the end of the book. But still the messages in the narrative are no less powerful. Religion, bullying, friendship, teenage pregnancy, family.

One of my favorite parts of the book is the scenes infused with dramatic irony. Where the girl (Evelyn) cannot understand what is actually going on with her parents but the reader can infer from her description. If this book is marketed toward younger readers, it's easy to see how these scenes could serve as perfect examples for introducing the concepts of dramatic irony and foreshadowing. After all, these are two of the more popular literary techniques in the history of narrative.

I think that they really tie in together with childhood though. It's what made Room by Emma Donoghue so captivating. The story of childhood is one percent experiential learning, one percent logical reasoning, and ninety eight percent mystery and confusion. It's so difficult to understand how we all grew up. Those small moments. I like this book because it approaches those moments with subtlety and a restrained childlike sense of wonder.