When Little Joe Stout survives the car accident that took his parents’ lives, he is sent to live with his maternal grandparents in the small town of Round Rock, Tennessee. Orphaned and missing his Texas home, Little Joe is reluctant to adapt. But his grandparents, especially his grandmother, are up to the challenge of raising him despite their own struggles. Soon, childhood friendships are forged in the oddball duo of Sugar and Bobby, and—with the help of a new canine companion—Little Joe begins to see that his new home offers the comfort and love he thought was lost forever.
Michael E. Glasscock was born in Longview Texas. He has a B.S. from the Tennessee Polytechinal Institute and and M.D from the University of Tennessee Medical Units. Glasscock has retired from the active practice of Otology - Neurotology in 1997.
Currently he keeps busy as a consultant to several medical related companies and writing fiction books.
I requested this book because the synopsis really touched me. I was looking forward to an emotional story where Joe would slowly open up to the life with his grandparents. Unfortunately the story missed one big factor in this whole story and that was emotion. Everything that could turn out to be an emotional situation finished in the next chapter where a new situation was being introduced or in grandma giving him some moral lesson which was SOOO frustrating. Still the story is not bad just not very emotional.
Joe a little boy who is used to live in a house with electricity and groceries from the supermarket ends up living with his grandparents when his parents die in an accident. The situations he has to adapt to are very general. There is no electricity in the house. His grandparents kill their animals to eat them. They live on a farm in t he middle of nowhere. It is clear that Joe has a lot of problems with that and does not really understand the why people would choose to live like that instead of choosing for the much better and easier life he knew when his parents where still alive.
Grandpa and Grandma are clearly "old-fashioned". They are living on the farm and as Joe will live there too he is to help with the work around the farm. Grandma takes care of the house, grandpa does the work. Both grandparents seem to be developed and intelligent people though and it was hard for me to understand some of their choices. It felt like they did not really attach to the boy but still some actions did show love. If Joe felt sad because he missed his parents his grandma more or less told him "get over it, life goes on". This happened to a lot of situations in the book making it really frustrating for me to read. I really felt like slapping grandma in the face at parts because I did not agree with her reaction on Joe's feelings.
There are some parts in the story that did touch me but overall I experienced the story as an emotionless rapport of Joe trying to get used to living with his grandparents while everything seems to go wrong.
Little Joe
Author: Michael Glasscock
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press
ISBN-10: 1608325660
ISBN-13: 9781608325665
Pages: 256
Format: Hardcover
Series: Round Rock #1
Greenleaf Book Group Press: Amazon | B&N
2 reacties
Write reactiesAh, too bad you didn't get the emotional punch you were expecting. Sounds like a decent tale other than that :)
ReplyNot a pick-up for me then!
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