The Stone Child: Dan Poblocki

SUMMARY (Courtesy of borders.com):

Eddie Fennicks is excited that his family has moved to the small town of Gatesweed. He discovers that his favorite author, Nathaniel Olmstead, had lived there before his mysterious disappearance 13 years ago. Soon, Eddie and his new friends must solve the mystery of the missing author.

OPINION: 4 STARS

Keeping in mind that this book level is grades 4-7, I give this work 4 stars. The writing is simple- but it works and is appropriate for the audience intended. It is a very quick and very easy read but I did find myself falling into it and I can easily imagine that younger audiences would really love this book.

The idea behind it is a good one- an author’s work and the horrors within his books coming alive and haunting the town in which he resides- and I particularly liked the reasons on how and why this was happening. The actual solution to it was great- simple yet a puzzle at the same time. I found myself thinking no, that is too easy- it has to be something harder but I didn’t actually think of the very obvious answer.

My main critique with the book is the overall lack of character growth but everything does happen in a relatively short time frame. There are some true emotions shown in there but overall, that aspect of the story seemed to be lacking in my opinion.

Overall, everything is explained but there was one loose end that was never tied up with bothered me related to one specific person. I can make an assumption about that character but at the same time, I cannot be sure and that sort of bothers me in this case.

The ending, however, was great- I really enjoyed the very last part but I won’t say how or why, you just need to read it to find out but I think most book lovers will appreciate it.