The Trouble with Jeremy Chance

I just finished reading The Trouble with Jeremy Chance and I think it's a great read, and it really brings the past alive. Jeremy is 12 years old and lives in New Hampshire - his brother is away fighting WW1, and his mother recently died of Spanish Influenza. Other historical events - the Molasses Flood in Boston (wow!), meeting hobos riding the rails, seeing new-fangled cars and airplanes. Jeremy is a wonderfully developed character, as is his father, and their developing relationship - Jeremy developing some independence, and his father realizing how he's growing up - make this is warm and fulfilling read.

I recommend this book because it is good. It has a lot of detail but not too much and it didn't get boring. I think Jeremy was a mix between brave (because he went to Boston all by himself), sad (because his Mom died by influenza), and happy (because his brother was coming home from the war in a few weeks). The story was set in the early 1900's and that was very interesting because life was very different than it is today. For example, I did not know there was a disease called influenza. The most interesting part of the book was when Jeremy got caught in a molasses flood. Other people got burned, or stuck to the pavement, or died. And horses got stuck in the barns and people had to shoot them. This all happened in Boston and that's where I live. It says in the back of the book that the molasses flood really happened. I think this author is a really good writer and I want to read more of his books.