What would you do if you were stuck taking care of your family, at age 12? If everything you did affected somebody else in some way? Wyatt Reaves is a 12 and a 1/2 boy who has been through more than most people. Up until now, his family was poor and living in the dumps. That was the life he was used to and comfortable with. Everything was going okay, until something happened that completely changed his life. He was messing around and burned down the house. His uncle took him away, behind his parents’ back, and they Now they are on the road, not sure where they are going or how long they will be gone. Wyatt is not only having to deal with his own problems, but his uncle’s issues as well. His uncle moves from girl to girl, house to house and job to job. Nothing in his life is stable and he has to take matters in his own hands.

Overall this was a good book, however it had some problems. The beginning was great, but after the first few pages, I lost interest. I would read it in spurts, but it didn’t keep my attention for very long. It was really wordy and too detailed . It just kept going on and on about the same event, that could have been summarized in a few pages. This made the story confusing, because you would forget what had happened. After the climax, it got a little better. Things started to progress faster and more started to occur. The ending was the one part that I couldn't stop reading. It was really well written and it had quite a few surprises.The events kept coming one after another and it was completely unexpected. It ended in a completely different way, than how I expected it to. The author did a good job of switching it up, so the reader didn't know how it was going to end.
Even though the book itself wasn't very good, it did teach a valuable lesson. The theme of the book was “Never Give Up”. Even though this is a common theme, the way it was presented in this book was really unique. It showed that struggle is an everyday occurrence and some people have it worse than others.The author explained that even those who are lead down a bad path have the ability to turn their life into what you want it to be that you could go from a completely horrible life, to a wonderful life. It showed that everything is okay in the end. Overall, this isn't a book I would recommend, but it wasn't the worst book I've read.