Guest Review by Caroline Eagly Cummings

Chevalier's is pleased to announce that we will now be featuring book reviews by some of our younger customers!

Our first guest review is by 10 year old Caroline Eagly Cummings, a sixth grader at UCLA Lab School, and an avid reader.


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Belle Prater's Boy by Ruth White

reviewed by Caroline Eagly Cummings

Gypsy Artubutus Leemaster is a girl with long, golden hair down to her waist. She lives in a wealthy environment in Coal Station, Virginia. Woodrow Prater, on the other hand, is a boy who is cross-eyed and lives in a shack with his mother and father.

Even though Gypsy and Woodrow live completely different lifestyles, they are cousins. Belle Prater, Woodrow's mother, lives a life of sorrow. One morning she vanishes. She seems to have disappeared from planet Earth. Woodrow is then forced to live with Gypsy's family.

Of course everyone asks Woodrow about his mother and where she has gone. Woodrow doesn't know for sure, but he has an idea. Woodrow misses his mother, but not as much as Gypsy misses her father. Gypsy's father died when she was just a toddler. Gypsy seldom speaks of it though, because she knows it wasn't an accident.

Woodrow likes the luxury of his new life in Coal Station. He gets new clothes, a haircut, and he lives in a big house with his own room!

Gypsy and Woodrow become best friends during their year in 6th grade. Gypsy wonders how Woodrow got over his mother's disappearance because Gypsy could never get over her father's death. But then Woodrow tells her the real secret of where his mother has gone.

Belle Prater's Boy is a great historical fiction book. I recommend it to people who like exciting historical fiction. I never really read historical fiction that much until I read this book. So even if you have never read historical fiction and you don't think you'll like it, you should give this book a try.

I love the characters in this book and I particularly enjoyed some of the stories that Woodrow tells. They are very interesting. I think that overall this book is very amazing and I highly recommend it.