Words of Stone (Red Fox Older Fiction)

by Kevin Henkes

This was terrible. It was sad and depressing. It was made worse by the fact neither child referred to their parents as mum or dad - just Reena or Glenn or Vickie. Even the grandmas were referred to as Nova or Floy. Maybe that was to prevent confusion for the reader but it just came across as flat and made it feel as if there was no love between the families.

As for the main characters I didn't really like either of them. Blaze was somewhat alright. I felt sorry for him but he seemed like a decent person - just a little weird, rather anxious and somewhat depressed. And his family was nice even if they did feel flat and distant.

Joselle was a compulsive liar and a cruel little girl. I felt sorry for her in some regards, her relationships with her mother and her grandma are terrible and it no doubt hurts to be treated as a burden and unwanted. On the other hand she was a cruel lying brat, looking to spread the hurt around. She purposefully provokes Blaze by spelling out his dead mother's name with stones on his hill, then lies about when she got there to mess with his head. She did feel bad about it later, when she became friends with him but it was too little too late.

It was painful to get through. 1 star.