Beetle Boy

Reviewed by: Karen Sandlin Silverman - Scarborough High School, Scarborough, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: November 11, 2014

Review

Charlie Porter is crashing on his girlfriend's sleeper sofa while recuperating from an injury. Through nightmares of larger than life beetles and stilted conversations with his girlfriend he seems to be trying to work out some of his childhood demons. When Charlie was young, his mother left Charlie and his brother with his ne’er-do-well father who moved them into a cramped, run-down apartment. One night in an effort to comfort his father, Charlie told his father a story he learned from his mother about a beetle. Charlie's father published these stories and trotted Charlie ?sometimes dressed in a beetle costume -- around the region to author events billing him as the world's youngest published author." Along the way, Charlie befriended a fellow author, Mrs. M., and ended up living with her for awhile. This is such a sad book with an almost-redemptive ending. Readers of this novel will clearly come to understand the lingering effect of childhood trauma.

Overall Book Score: very good