![]() All the characters, including Marty, have their strengths and their flaws. I love that Marty breaks the rules, struggles with his moral compass, tries so hard to do right and grow up… I’m not real sure I like the way all of it plays out in the end (I think it might be a bit confusing as far as a moral goes), but the narrative does value things like sticking to your guns and questions things like judging others based on social relationships. I love that the parents are both kind and parental. He’s a really soft-hearted kid, and when he finds a dog which he suspects of having been abused, he questions his own morals in order to save it. The boy, Marty, wants a dog, but his family can’t afford one. The story really takes place sometime in the eighties, maybe nineties. It felt old-timey to my son, but part of this is from the lack of bells and whistles in your life if you are rural and poor, so there were lessons to be learned by reading this. ![]() ![]() It’s about a tween boy growing up poor in the mountains of West Virginia. ![]() Shiloh is not quite a classic, though it appears on many reading lists and recommended readings. ![]() I wouldn’t call it light-hearted, but I would say you don’t have to be scared of the ending. After the last few classics with their super sad endings, my son and I were both hoping for Shiloh, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, to be more light-hearted. Another month, another read-aloud middle grades novel about nature, pets, and a boy coming of age. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |