Completed 1/11/2017 Reviewed 1/12/2017
4 stars
This juvenile fantasy novel is a delightful story chock full
of social issues. Predominantly, it is a
tale about lying and telling the truth. Charlie is a boy who lies all the time. One day, he steals a magic skull, although
he’s never stolen anything in his life before this. The skull forces the people around it to tell
the truth. Of course, telling the truth
gets him into as much trouble as lying did, especially since no one really
believes him. The skull’s influence also
rubs off on the people in Charlie’s life, like his family. So Charlie must navigate his life until he
can find a way to part with the skull.
What amazed me most about this book was its level of
sophistication. Besides the lying theme,
the story also deals with cancer, the environment, and gay issues. It made me wonder if this book wouldn’t be
better suited for a tweener than juvenile.
But I applaud the author for an excellent job writing a book that deals
with these issues. He uses humor and
compassion, creating a wonderful learning opportunity for the main character
and the reader.
SPOILER ALERT: The
one issue discussed in the book that I had a problem with was when at a family
dinner, with the skull nearby, everyone begins speaking only the truth. The great-grandmother blurts out that she was
a stripper. While really comical, this
is the primary reason for thinking the book should be read by tweeners rather
than younger children. But it made for a
terrifically funny scene, which eventually lead to the poignant part with the
gay uncle coming out.
I give this book four out of five stars. It had terrific characters and was
wonderfully written. I read it in a day
and enjoyed every minute of it. It’s
funny but teaches important lessons. It
was a joy to read after the couple of really heavy books I just finished.
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