One of my sisters loved this, the other didn't like it. I'm somewhere in between. I thought the writing was well-done: smooth and polished. But otherwise, I thought this was heavy-handed (the author's note is a sad muddle which kind of explains this) and very one-note.

Perhaps this is a small thing, but Devon's Eagle Scout project is a big part of the book, and it irritated me that what is described as his project would not earn him an Eagle--it just isn't big enough and doesn't include the required elements. I suppose it's possible that there's a wider scope to the project that wasn't described, but it doesn't really seem that way. He also would have been extremely young to earn an Eagle. (I assumed, until his age was specified and middle-school attendance mentioned, that he was quite a bit older--in high school--like the vast majority of Eagle Scouts.) While it isn't impossible--I have known of a few boys who earned the Eagle in eighth or ninth grade--it's unlikely. The boys I knew of had parents who were extremely involved in their kids' Boy Scout programs and pushing them regularly (or, in some cases, giving huge support to the boy's overdrive). The single dad in this book would not have had the time or (I think, based on what we see here) competitive drive to make it happen.