Really it's 2.5 stars. When is GR going to get with the program and let us do half stars. This wasn't a bad book but it wasn't great. It was very predictable. The foreshadowing was a bit obvious. I wish some of the characters were more richly formed. I liked the idea of taking the old pictures and creating a story for them. It's something I think we all do at times. It's just the story created was a bit simplistic or overplayed. ( )

Poignant story told by Katy, a future doctor, growing up in the early 1900's about a "touched boy" and others she knew. Worthwhile. ( )

Another wonderful Lois Lowry story! A quick read, and a little sad but still her wonderful story telling comes through. ( )

Both prompted and illustrated by a collection of period photographs, this is a short book, but one with a lot of depth to it. It's a skillful depiction of the loss of innocence from the point of view of the one who loses it. Perhaps some of the characters lacked depth; but then perhaps that fits with the restriction implied by having a child as narrator.

This is a historical fiction book set in the early 1900s and follows Katy Thatcher, a girl who wants to be a doctor like her father. She meets a boy named Jacob who never speaks but has a way with animals and becomes sort of friends with him. However, some town scandal follows and Jacob does something horrible that he felt like was helping his family, but wasn’t.

Silent Boy is an interesting middle grade book because it takes on rather serious subjects. It shows just how difficult it was to live in the 1900s and how dangerous it was to get sick or injured during this time frame. It also sets up how a mentally disabled person would have been treated and what their lives would have been like. It’s a bit dark, but I appreciated it for how genuine the story is and how it tells the straight truth.

Katy is a wonderful main character, and I loved viewing the events through her perspective. While fairly young and a bit naive, she is exceedingly clever and figures out what the adults so often try to hide from her. I loved her relationship with her father and really enjoyed seeing a male figure who encouraged his young daughter’s wit and curiosity, which was likely not common during this time period. Throughout the book, he tries his best to be as truthful as possible with her while also keeping things appropriate for her maturity level.

It’s a rather slow book because it takes its time setting up the time frame, the culture, and the way Katy’s and Jacob’s lives were; however, it’s a fairly short book and easy to get through. I would recommend this for mature middle grade readers, or for a family or classroom readalong to make sure young readers have resources and an adult to help them process the traumatic events that take place. I think it’s a wonderfully interesting concept for a book and enjoyed it a lot.

Also posted on Purple People Readers. ( )