Beginning ~ with old-fashioned candy

Turtle in Paradise ~ by Jennifer L. Holm, 2010, YA fiction (Florida), 10/10

Everyone thinks children are sweet as Necco Wafers, but I've lived long enough to know the truth:  kids are rotten.  The onlly difference between grown-ups and kids is that grown-ups go to jail for murder.  Kids get away with it.

I've already written a review of this book about kids in Key West in 1935, but I want to show how the author bracketed the story by letting Turtle (the main character) repeat at the end what she had said at the beginning.  Here are the last lines of the book (page 177, not a spoiler):

I've lived long enough to learn the truth:  not all kids are rotten, and there are grown-ups who are sweet as Necco Wafers.  And if you're lucky — lucky as an orphan — some of them may even end up being your family.

She learned, she grew, she changed — notice the words "lived long enough to know" in the first excerpt and "lived long enough to learn" in the last one.  What you think you know isn't always right.  And we get a healthy dose of culture from 1935, like Little Orphan Annie (shown here with Sandy) and Shirley Temple.  This is a great little book that I think adults can enjoy as much as kids.  That's why I rated it 10 of 10.

  If you want to play along, this meme is hosted by Katy at A Few More Pages. Share the first sentence or two of the book you are reading. (Sometimes it takes several sentences to get the full thought.) Then, share your impressions of that beginning.  Click this link to see what others say about the books they are reading this week.