Unfortunately, this review is going to have to be short and sweet because I’m behind on posting and the New Year is almost upon us.
Forgive me.
Here’s everything you need to know about this one: The Real Boy is THE book to get the kid in your life (or the young at heart) immediately. There are wizards and spells and beautiful imagery (and illustrations), but that’s not where the magic lies. The true magic of Anne Ursu’s charming narrative is hidden in the stories ability to portray a protagonist who is painfully different. Eleven-year-old Oscar is an oddity, an outlier, and an outcast in the village. This is a book with plenty of moral gray areas; a book that forces you to think long and hard about the implications of our choices; a book where there is no neatly wrapped ending for you to take home with you. It’s messy, imperfect, and flawed, just like it’s heroes. But that’s what I liked about it.
“I think if you’ll look around, my boy,’ he said gently, ‘you’ll find that no one is quite right. But we all do the best we can.”
Rating: 4/5 stars