Here Today

It seems I've gotten into a bit of a slump in my reading. I've run into a string of books that I don't really care much for at all. Swollen was one, The House on the Gulf was another, and this is a third.

The problem with the book, at least for me, is that it tries to have two A plots, so to speak, rather than one major theme and a secondary theme. One theme in this book is Doris, the self-centered and inconsiderate mother. The other theme, and one much better dealt with, concerns bullying at school.

The Doris theme should have been left out entirely. The mother is totally unsympathetic; you actively dislike her. She actually detracts from the book.

The bullying theme is the strongest theme. It's not just bullying of Ellie, either, but bullying of all the kids on Witch Tree Lane by the other students at school, bullying carried to physical extremes where Ellie and her friend actually end up bleeding and bruised.

There is also bullying of a couple of women who live together and are thus subject to hatred. Even a tree ends up being bullied and defaced by someone.

If the book had dealt only with the bullying theme it would have been a good book. There was room for more development within that theme and the result would have been a book about prejudice, in various forms, and bullying in school, and the book could have stood alone on that and succeeded.

Instead, you end up with a divided book that is readable, but only because of the prejudice/bullying theme aspect.

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