1987 - The Whipping Boy

Dates read: June 2008
Read or listened to: Read
Pages: 89 pp.
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Here is how it was for me: First 60 pages took me several days to get through. The characters seemed flat although I thought the story idea was fabulous! (I thought about giving this a rating of 2 out of 5, but it takes a lot for me to do that because it is a Newbery and I want to assume there are a lot of strengths.) I sat down tonight determined to finish the last 29 pages and, lo and behold, they went really quickly. Prince Brat had changed and his "newness" was believable because of the dialogue and action he was involved in. Jemmy was still skeptical of his change but, little by little, he came to realize that perhaps the change was for real. In a nutshell, I struggled to get through the first 60 pages even though I really wanted to love it. I did love the last 30 pages!