We should say up front this is a solid Christian story. Here we will list the content that you will need to consider to determine if it is a good fit for your Christian kiddo.
Upon reading, we realize right up front there is a bit of a serious thread running through this title. In the first letter we find out the plot revolves around a breakup between two adults who deeply cared about each other, leaving two sets of kids (Cassie on one side and Nick & Julie on the other) who are separated after feeling convinced they would be family. In fact the first letter is Cassie writing to her mom who has left her with her grandmother due to the pain of the breakup. We also read about the tragic death of Cassie’s father in the past. While we certainly don’t want to overstate the weight of the book, as it is mostly light, this may be a bit of a heavy subject for some.
The other big item to know about is that a big part of the plot revolves around comedy that is best described as “mild insults”. You can tell the author really attempts to be intentional with this, but some parts are better at walking this line than others. This runs cover to cover. We see a few names (e.g., camel-breath) and common jokes, such as those about people being older. Here are some examples to give you a feel so you can decide for your kiddo.
“You are a habit I would like to kick… with both feet”
Insult King says, “I told him that if I decided to kill myself, I’d climb to the top of his ego and jump to his IQ” (great example of going too far to be funny).
One joke involves drinking poison (clearly a joke)
One of Cassie’s jokes include an irreverent punch line about the Last Supper
A whole list of potential insults is shown in a letter. None are meant to be about anyone specific, but there are a few unfortunate ones (“You’re so ugly, I’ll bet when your mom dropped you off at school, she got a fine for littering”.
At the final insult contest, we see Cassie starting to change her ways, but other characters use fat jokes, ugly jokes, intelligence jokes, insults.
Related to the last item, the kids meet their “hero”, named the “King of Insults”. This guy starts off very rude. It is his whole persona (although his growth and change over the book is really neat to see). At first we read lines where he is intentionally being as rude as possible (e.g., “If you’d run away from home like a normal kid, your ma wouldn’t have had to”.
In one important part of the story, Cassie and Nick write to their parents pretending to be someone else. They make this worse by justifying it as OK (even try to justify it in a letter to Jesus). Related to this, and with really good intentions, Nick sneaks away from home, taking a bus trip across the country (leaves a note explaining reasoning).
A few other items to be aware of:
A flashback memory is shared of the two main characters sneaking to watch a show about insults their parents didn’t like.
Pastor Mike asks Cassie if she is the one putting sermon critiques in the offering plate (implied yes).
There is an instance of Cassie writing letters in church.
There is a mention of santa with an unfortunate comment, “He wrote back and said I’d been a good girl, so I figured he didn’t really see me when I was awake”.
Cassie sees a group of guys who “looked like they could star in a gangland-murder movie”.
It mentions a Beatles T-shirt.
Nick tells Julie she is “not a good liar”
A man on a bus is drinking out of a flask, which spills. We find out then it was in fact whiskey.