It really pains us to list all of this because this story ends in such a sweet way and has a few great lessons, not to mention some positive content from our faith, but there is quite a bit here.

The older sister begins to go off the rails during this story. We gather this over time through the eyes of Bob, the main character and her younger brother. She begins dating a really, really bad guy who is much older than her. She begins sneaking out each night over a long period. Her brother realizes this, but doesn’t ever tell his parents because he doesn’t want to be a snitch (side note: we as Christian parents should really focus on eliminating this idea of ‘being a snitch’ from our home!). One of the first nights when he sees her she is covered in hay, implying without directly saying what she has been doing while out with this much older boy. Her sister tells her mom that she waits to put lipstick on until she gets to school (knowing she is not allowed). While her behavior leads her to a very bad situation where she is caught and punished, the behavior is never really shown to be as terrible and dangerous as it is and, even at the end of the book when everything else is resolved nicely she is not repentful. This is a really, really big deal and no young reader would gather that from reading this.

There is one strange and unfortunate comment made during an incident of bullying. Bob is grabbed by a group, marched to a creek, made to strip down completely, has his hands tied with fishing string and is thrown in the water. Later he is pulled out and tied up in his neighbor’s shed, still nude, and left. This is obviously unbelievably dangerous, but is presented in a similar way you might expect someone being tripped in a hallway. To make it worse, after he is stripped down the author has the older boys also strip down nude (implied that this is so they can cool down). Bob comments, “they weren’t wearing any underwear either. I had to notice because they were so tall and I came up to their —----” (lines are used in place of the word, but implication is clear and child’s mind will fill in). And yet there is more. In a touching scene, the neighbor, Mrs. Dowdel shows great kindness to him, but in doing so she suggests he does not tell his parents about the incident. To make it worse, she says that, “they’d probably just tell you to turn the other cheek, wouldn’t they?” When he confirms this she says, “Problem is after you do that 4-times you run out of cheeks” and then “If you can’t get justice, get even”. This whole scene is unfortunate from start to end when considering the young readers targeted with this book.

There is a decent amount of talk about ghosts and a house being built on a native American burial ground. This type of thing comes up quite a bit, but never gets dark. In a scene that will likely confuse many kids we hear a fast set of various accounts of teenagers at night who say they saw all kinds of different things, including the appearance of a ghost. This is never cleared up completely, but it is somewhat implied they are just confused in the commotion. There is talk of a house being haunted with ‘spooks’.

Mrs. Dowdel convinces the young boy to drive even though he has no license. He does and all goes well and he remembers it as the time of his life. He puts the car back exactly so his parents won’t know. Later dad finds out and really does nothing about it.

At the start of the book especially, Bob makes many rude comments internally about Mrs. Dowdel’s weight. He mentions things like her nightgown being the size of a revival tent and barely being able to see around her.

There are a handful of other things to know about. The older sister mentioned above is obsessed with Elvis. She also comments at one point, despite being in a Christian family, that she “hopes she comes back in the next life” as a boy (never corrected). She is also unkind to her little sister at times, e.g., drawing a line down the floor in the room and telling her not to cross. At one point the main character Bob mentions that he is only holding his sister’s hand because no one is around to see. There is a somewhat graphic scene of Mrs. Dowdel killing a turtle and preparing it to eat. A sorority initiation includes stealing a melon off someone’s property and reciting a “dirty limerick”. At one point his Dad says a great line to answer the call to become a minister as well if he hears it, but then follows it with “or maybe just let it ring” (as he is going through challenges). Also it is very regular in this town to pull off some dangerous and serious pranks as a part of halloween. Casper the ghost is mentioned. Finally, a revival comes to town and is shown through the eyes of Bob and not in a good light (this could be confusing for a Christian child and should probably be discussed). There is an implication that a young lady who is getting married at the end of the book is already pregnant.