The Fireside Chats

I finished reading this one last night and I have to say that I enjoyed it (despite the fact that this book was geared towards children). I like how Ware and Jolene start bonding the further along we go in the book. It’s not like a romantic smoochy kiss-y type of interaction, it’s more of a good friend that you can depend on kind of thing. I also like the fact that I can see a little bit of myself in Ware. That part made me glad I read this book. This would definitely be a good book to either let your kids read it or read it with your kids (if that’s something you like to do with your kids).

Synopsis: Ware can’t wait to spend summer “off in his own world”—dreaming of knights in the Middle Ages and generally being left alone. But then his parents sign him up for dreaded Rec camp, where he must endure Meaningful Social Interaction and whatever activities so-called “normal” kids do.

On his first day Ware meets Jolene, a tough, secretive girl planting a garden in the rubble of an abandoned church next to the camp. Soon he starts skipping Rec, creating a castle-like space of his own in the church lot.

Jolene scoffs, calling him a dreamer—he doesn’t live in the “real world” like she does. As different as Ware and Jolene are, though, they have one thing in common: for them, the lot is a refuge.

But when their sanctuary is threatened, Ware looks to the knights’ Code of Chivalry: Thou shalt do battle against unfairness wherever faced with it. Thou shalt be always the champion of the Right and Good—and vows to save the lot.

But what does a hero look like in real life? And what can two misfit kids do?