Skinny is a sweet, unchallenging story for kids written back in the 1960s. It features an 11 year old orphan boy living in rural Georgia sometime in the early to mid - 20th century. Skinny is unable to read since he only attends school 2 or 3 weeks a year. He works doing chores at a little hotel where he lives with Miss Bessie, Roman (whom she rescued from a chain gang), Peachy the cook, and R.F.D. the dog. Other characters include “Daddy” Rabbit, a member of a bridge construction crew who is sweet on Miss Bessie. Skinny befriends a boy his age who is the son of carnival workers, and they plan to run away together, hopping a train as it leaves town. However, their plans change. Ultimately, Skinny is sent off to an orphanage for his own good.

No heavy-handed life lessons here... just a story about a time and place young US readers will find distant from their own. ( )

Skinny, an orphan boy in rural Georgia, is happy enough working at a small hotel doing odd jobs. He's thinking he ought to learn to read, but considering the time it would take out of his life to do so, has not made it a priority. Written in 1964, there are all sorts of "issues" which are touched upon, but not in overbearing detail, like an angry abusive father, being homeless, losing a beloved pet, friendship. I thought it a great, little, surprisingly humorous book. ( )

A young people's story about a 12-year-old orphan who is taken in by a widow until there is room for him at the orphanage. Set in the earlier part of the 20th century, a good deal of the book focuses on the boy's learning to read.
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