My tween daughter and I sometimes like to read the same book on our own and then have our own little "book club" discussion about it. I saw this book with the dog on the cover - we are both obsessed with dogs - and thought this might be a good one for our next reading. However, I thought this book was just awful. It was filled with over-the-top melodramatic manipulation. There was not only one tragedy to deal with but at least 4 deaths of important people to the main character as well as abuse, abandonment and alcoholism all glossed over in about 200 pages. Any single one of those events would have been enough fodder for an entire novel much less all of it. Oddly enough, it is also told in a rather upbeat style which made me feel like there was no gravitas to the events taking place in this 12 year old's life. I know it has gotten lots of 5 star ratings but I think that's because the author does write very likeable characters and pulls at your heartstrings but that is its point, and its only point that I can see, which just made me angry at being manipulated. I would have appreciated a more thoughtful, focused approach to such mature topics, especially for a children's book where it may be the first time a lot of the readers are introduced to such subject matter. I won't be recommending this to my daughter. ( )

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Clearly, this book should not be nominated for the YA Golden Sower. It's for children, not teens. If I had read this thinking it was for elementary/middle schoolers, I would have enjoyed it a lot more. Although with the number of deaths, it could be a bit hard on elementary aged kids, but the writing will most likely not appeal to older children. ( )

Ben Coffin has never been one for making friends. As a former foster kid, he knows people can up and leave without so much as a goodbye. Ben prefers to spend his time with the characters in his favorite sci-fi books...until he rescues an abandoned mutt from the alley next-door to the Coney Island Library.

Scruffy little Flip leads Ben to befriend a fellow book-lover named Halley--yes, likethe comet--a girl unlike anyone he has ever met. Ben begins thinking of her as "Rainbow Girl" because of her crazy-colored clothes and her laugh, pure magic, the kindthatmakes you smile away the stormiest day.

Rainbow Girl convinces Ben to write a novel with her. But as their story unfolds Ben's life begins to unravel, and Ben must discover for himself the truth about friendship and the meaning of home.

I finished this book before Christmas but failed to write the review. I enjoyed parts of this book, but it was very predictable and spent too much time, for me, in having the kids write their story. Having said that, it's exactly the kind of thing that like-minded kids will get immersed in. I preferred the story about how the dog helped poor readers. An often touching story. ( )