If “number of buckets of tears cried” were the sole factor for determining the best children’s chapter books, this book would be #2. Where the Red Fern Grows would, of course, be #1.

SPOILER!

You don’t know, after all, whether she is going to get her heart’s desire, or whether she is going bend or be bent to convention. And you can hope, but don’t *know*, if she can be reconciled to either path.

Wendy, my son (who I think is also 2 for 2 so far, Eric? depends whether he changed his vote to Charles and Emma before or after he told me to submit his bracket) also thought of Twilight. We looked at the book reveal this morning, and he asked me about the book (which he hadn’t heard of – it was never one of my favorites so I hadn’t introduced it), I told him what I remembered from 25ish years ago, that there’s a family that’s immortal and they’ll always stay at the age they were when they turned immortal, so the son is always 17 (I may be wrong on the age), and he wants this teenage girl to become immortal too and stay with him – he said, “Oh, like Edward Cullen.” I had never considered that, but yes, some of the same disturbing (to me) idea that a teen boy wants a teen girl to give up everything about her human life to be with him. (Though, yeah, Edward keeps saying he doesn’t want Bella to do it.)