This is a book with enough whimsical fantasy to bring a few smiles, but it has a huge dose of reality as to what is happening in the government school system in modern day United States. It is written in third person, so you get everyone's thoughts and conversations as the story goes on.

It starts with a move to California by a family with two children: upper elementary-age Mark and teenage Julia. Mom is a former schoolteacher who quit work to raise her children, and Dad is an executive who is moved around because of his job. As time goes on, the parents become aware of more and more things that are going on at the kids' school coupled with less and less learning. Circumstances of Mark's broken leg (and the necessary weeks of bed rest) force Mom into homeschooling with the help of their curmudgeonly neighbor, Peter, a former English professor. Peter plays a huge role in the story as he teaches them all the joy of reading good literature. Along the way, Peter makes peace with himself and sheds his curmudgeonly image.

"Whimsical" is a very good word for this book. The issue of homeschooling versus government schooling is somewhat simplified, and the principal at the school is portrayed as a rather one-dimensional, unreasonable, inflexible bureaucrat. That said, the book has definite appeal. I stayed up until 2 a.m. reading before I simply could not hold my eyes open any longer. (I paid for that the next day, you can believe me!) I finished the book the next night. I recommend this book for parents. Parents of government-schooled students may take offense at the portrayal of the principal and some of the teachers, but if they read the entire book, they will be forced to take a look at their children's school a little more critically.

Product review by Nancy Wagner, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, December 2007