You meet Theo and immediately sympathize with him. It's his birthday and his sister gets him some pimple cream. His grandma gets him a gift from his dad, but they never talk about his dad. He knows that when he was younger, his dad went to war. He doesn't know what happens after that.

His grandma secretly offers to tell him more about his dad if he can keep it a secret from his mom. Which means that this is not going to be good news. But he agrees because bad news is better than no news. He learns more about his dad and what he learns makes him angry, at his mom.

Throughout the book, you travel with Theo and his class as they try to individually decide what's the most important thing on earth.

This book will make you laugh and cry. The voice is so strong you feel like you are Theo and as everything becomes a little clearer, you are just as emotional as he is.

My only issue was the author's stance on the Vietnam War was a little bit heavy-handed for me. Not enough to dampen my enjoyment of the book though.

I read about this book on the Literate Lives blog. They used it for their Grand Discussion, when some students and their parents read the book and get together to discuss it. I would never have picked it up otherwise, so I thank them!

It was a nice, fast read and I can't wait until we discuss it in book group.