The boy on the wooden box whole book summary
This was an amazing read about the emotions decisions and difficulties a young boy encounters while growing up I had tears in my eyes when he learned of the consequences of the choices that he made How often have we acted without thinking how our actions could affect so many people 9780615835563 I wrote it I love it 9780615835563 In the spirit of full disclosure I must confess that I know this book s author Christopher Michael In truth that doesn t matter Even if I had not known him I would have still given this book five stars It was a remarkable debut The books begins with a double murder that shakes the residents of a very small town The murders seem to set off a string of events that carry through until the end of the book Perhaps no one in the town is as affected as much as the book s main character Luther McRae Not only is Luther affected by the murders he is also dealing with the challenges of growing into adolescence These challenges include a rather tough family life because of his autistic sister the dangers faced by his best friend because of an abusive and alcoholic father a new girl in school who evokes strange feelings in Luther and a collection of secrets including one very big secret that Luther keeps hidden on scraps of paper that he stores in a locked box All of this and much is going on in the book while the mystery of the double murder is also being investigated. The boy on the wooden box free pdf While I was reading this book I kept thinking that this book will become the new Perks of Being a Wallflower for a slighter younger generation Luther is only 12 years old in the book The moments throughout the book are expertly interconnected and I was frequently reminded of what it was like to be 12 It is very hard to no longer be a child but to not quite be an adolescent There are parts of the book that had me quite emotional too I think the story can tug at your heartstrings in unexpected ways Christopher did a great job with all of the characters in the book Each one was written to be clearly identifiable as an individual I was especially delighted with Luther s mother who tends to speak only in French when she gets upset or angry Several of the scenes with Luther s mother added a nice dash of humor Also the story itself moves at breakneck speed it was very hard to put down There is so much happening on each page that a reader is just compelled to keep turning. Boy in box trial timothy ferriter In the end I can t say enough great things about this book other than you need to read it yourself to get the full sense I am hopeful that Christopher will continue along this path of being a writer because I am eager to find out what he writes next 9780615835563 This book is about a little boy in middle school just starting puberty and dealing with emotions and figuring out who he is in relation to the world around him. Boy in boxers ocean It has a murder mystery a touch of a romance and a heartbreaking story of a young girl he knows and then there are a couple of heart pounding action scenes that leave you turning the page and reading fast. Boy in box mother I am so glad to have won this book on Goodreads Christopher Michael is a very talented writer 9780615835563 I m one of the very first people to have read this book I even got to read it in stages as the minor editorial typo changes were being made Perhaps you can consider that my great fortune as I was able to view this book as it grew into maturation. Falling down the boy in the iron box book 1 Boy In Box is a strange and winding tale about a middle school boy caught smack dab in a tidal bore of life in a small lower middle class family living in the heart of the Northern East part of the country As someone from California this was a learning experience for me the fact that a boy of such an age seemed still so pristine with innocence in a world that is so ugly. The boy on the wooden box ebook Then the ugly drenches this kid like milk into a bowl of breakfast cereal Raised in a relatively calm and normal home save for one younger sister who has developmental issues a factor of that character which resonated deeply for me due to the fact that I have a sister with Autism and have worked with individuals on the spectrum as well this character is written so achingly true to life without overemphasis without the author explaining away the behavior with the technical terminology so that you can feel the experience of the boy as he deals with his sibling in a she s just that way manner not some special episode manner of sitcoms and the like Luther begins to have his eyes opened to things his child brain ignored and his burgeoning adolescent brain is just starting to register as abnormal and wrong People talk a lot about how thing were so great in the old days How kids were safe to play on the streets until the street lights went on how danger was not lurking around every corner But that is the cataract of nostalgia clouding over the brain Bad things happened all the time in those good old days Parents were alcoholics but drinking just seemed acceptable Kids were bullies and the option was to tough out the abuse or be the pussy tattletale There were no Tolerance assemblies It was back then as it is today Just as bare Just as brutal I think this novel while intended for a Young Adult audience will have the greatest impact on adults Those of us who have buried those moments in life where we walked in on one of our friends parents doing something we could feel in our gut wasn t right but completely lacking the knowledge or courage to do anything about it I know I felt that way several times throughout reading this book I covered my eyes with my hand remembered felt sad When a work of fiction can do that to you it s transcendent 9780615835563
After a double murder shakes a suburban town a boy s life becomes the center of a chain reaction of events that affects everyone around him Luther McRae an introverted family product of a busy mother an overworked father and an autistic sister keeps the secrets of his pre teen angst written down on scraps of paper and locked away in a box That is until a new girl arrives in town like a whirlwind to break down his walls and invade his guarded emotional turf Boy in Box is a story about growing up and finding identity amid the chaos and confusion of puberty and the anxiety of entering into a stressful adult world while questioning whether everything happens for a reason Boy in BoxLuther appears to be an average boy But he knows that every little move that is made in life has a reaction that may not affect you but has an affect somewhere in the world His best friend Jake looks out for him His mother seems to have her hands full not only with Luther but with his little sister Lucy Meeting Virginia seemed to be a simple action but little did he know how she would change his world After a man who lived down the street was murdered Luther s world seemingly turned upside down This book was a page turner from beginning to end I loved seeing how one little thing can cause ripples through the world I couldn t put it down 5 of 5 stars 9780615835563 I received this book to give an honest review.
Boy in box trial timothy ferriter I really enjoyed the whole story overall and how it goes to show how one event person action or consequence has a ripple effect A man is murdered down the street of Luther with that happening Luther finds his self pretty much tossed in the middle of helping a new girl that moves into his town His best friend Jake looks after him even though he has his own problems Luther s mother is super busy with his sister Lucy.
Boy in box mother When the new girl Virginia moves into town Luther s world is completely turned upside down he is doing things he normally wouldn t do Luther also seems to grow up a littler bit when he meets Virginia She has problems of her own which she doesn t like to acknowledge to anyone she likes to lie and make her life seem good At times I liked Virginia but when she would get upset over little things it kind of bugged me but of course the kids in this book were just that kids More like young teenagers so I can understand her acting the way she did It is normal but it still bugged me just a bit lol I enjoyed the ending and how it all came about but I would have liked to known what ever happened to the treasure not sure if that was ever fully told I would like to read by this author in the future 9780615835563 In my intangible repository of memories I don t recall the names of my neighbors I don t remember playing with too many children from my street other than those directly across from me I don t remember my parents talking about the various families that populated our old address they only talk about the violence that occurs there frequently these days It s difficult for me to come into a book that is set in the current year with a thriving neighborhood community the likes of which I never saw in the nineties But I understand that some neighborhoods are different from others Some have strong community roots Others are housing families of disparate roots In Christopher Michael s Boy in Box Luther s parents know the names of the parents residing in his neighborhood but it is only an exterior level of knowledge It s when Luther begins to reside within the same household as some of his friends that internal familial truths come to light Luther is the one good boy in a pack of sneering bullies gossiping girls and kids that come from households that are far removed from ideal However Luther doesn t come from a perfect household either His father is quiet his mother a ball of stress and nerves and his younger sister Lucy is autistic which eats up most of the families collective attention This leaves Luther alone bored and attention hungry This hunger is abated upon meeting a young girl named Virginia and a neighbor s murder both of which become problems Luther needs to solve Meanwhile there are constant tales of other characters surrounding the neighborhood and their problems Their actions will eventually come in contact with Luther s life Boy in Box is told from a third person omniscient narrative It is a style used to illustrate the thoughts of everyone involved in the novel How much autonomy that narrator has is dependent upon the writer In Boy in Box always expect the next chapter to begin with a philosophical allegory that somehow connects with Luther s story This narrative choice is where the majority of my problems stem from I will state that I really appreciate Michael s choice to talk about the problems one faces with raising a low functioning autistic child My older sister is high functioning and I still remember the melt downs from my sister the other parents who insinuated that my mother was a bad parent I was immediately ready to relate with Stacey s thoughts while raising Lucy But they were never provided For a narrative style that delves into the very depths of characters thoughts Michael never dives any deeper than shallow water Instead we re told that Stacey is having a hard time raising Lucy rather than see her working through every day There s a revelation with Luther s character that comes out of left field with no reflection whatsoever which was also my problem with Benjamin Alire Saenz s Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe At least in Saenz s novel the narration is first person and Aristotle might have good reason to deny portions of his identity This is not the same with third person omniscient We should have seen of Luther s thoughts when his relationship with Virginia grew And there s that inherent problem of telling over showing I think the worst was with Virginia and what her step father does to her I knew immediately when she was playing pool with the boys and she began to lasciviously stroke the pool stick or when she told them they could touch her rear That alone speaks volumes You don t have to spell it out later on in the book because it feels as though the writer doesn t have much trust in the reader to figure out what is going on And I don t think that those were Michael s intentions whatsoever I believe he wanted to tell a story about what some children go through and he wanted to give them a happy ending But that isn t the case with a majority of children There are also so many duplicate characters It seems as though every single dad excluding Steve is a drunkard Every single wife excluding Jake s mom are the kind of moms who wait until the last nerve and then take control of their family And because there is such a great number of side characters all of whom are not developed including the main characters I lost track of them When the step father s name popped up I had to go through a list of character names I recognized not even truly knowing any of them until I came up blank This whole web of interconnections is supposed to resemble a Rube Goldberg puzzle but each segment of Goldberg s puzzles was necessary Some of Michael s subplots have no direct relation to the story Like Frank and Janine That whole story could have been swapped out for developing Connie and going into her life And even then this whole set up is unsatisfying when resolved Good and evil abound in a story about consequences I think the worst had to be James who is honestly described as having an evil face We re never allowed into his life to see the reasons why his choices would lead him to such a conclusion so how could anyone know that James was evil However Angelo who is doing something illegal comes home drunk and hits his wife becomes a martyr after one of his actions Angelo is excluded from his labeling for petty reasons All of these problems wouldn t exist if we explored their lives and their thoughts were expanded upon But it s impossible to spend so much time on them when all the problems of the world fall upon Luther and Virginia I feel as though every dramatic trope possible was piled into Boy in Box without much success The essential message of this novel is that in a neighborhood filled with evil all it takes is one good person Luther to set a chain of consequences that will help the citizens of this town heal Luther is not much of a protagonist though with little development and given philosophical speeches that are too mature for a fourteen year old If the focus of the Rube Goldberg story elements had been taken out for development with Luther s family I think the story would have been much successful in depicting the everyday problems of a family just trying to live happily I would like to say that this problem with characters was my biggest gripe but we re avoiding the bigger issue here I m guessing that Michael is attempting to create a literary style in which adjectives are used as verbs but my passion for grammar can t let it slide Virginia sarcassed a reply Lightning strobed the tree Luther could not callus to the sensation of doom I think that one was supposed to be callous Since these are adjectives they tell us nothing about what is happening Adjectives only tell you how something was done She spoke sarcastically The lighting was like a strobe light against the tree These stylistic conventions made Boy in Box a very confusing read for me I don t say this to be a mean reviewer I say this as a writer to another writer because we writers are an invisible community and I want simply for another writer to have the chance to better their craft Christopher Michael s intentions are in the right place and that is 90% of the battle as a writer After that it takes time practice and all the energy you can possibly muster 9780615835563 Beautifully written I highly suggest everyone read this book I m honored to have been chosen by goodreads to read this fabulous debut 9780615835563 I got this book for free on First Read Giveaway I liked this book It felt as if it used a lot of words but didn t say much 9780615835563 Christopher R Michael is a novelist poet and screenwriter with a BA in English from Millersville University He has worked with children and young adults including fifteen years as a gymnastics coach He is originally from Levittown Pennsylvania and currently resides in Harrisburg Pa.
.
