My 9 year old son is reading this for class. I decided to read it too. I was blown away by how deep this novel is. It is very touching and deals with a sensitive topic quite well and in a way that children would understand. My only complaint is how abruptly it ended. It almost seems as if the author didn't quite know how to end the story. I wouldn't haVe minded if she would have taken 50 more pages to finish. I would love to see a sequel to this novel. How is Jackson and his family doing 2 or 3 years down from the time of the novel? A sequel would be amazing.