{"id":36872,"date":"2024-04-05T20:43:59","date_gmt":"2024-04-06T00:43:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=36872"},"modified":"2024-04-06T21:48:21","modified_gmt":"2024-04-07T01:48:21","slug":"review-of-the-size-of-the-truth-by-andrew-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=36872","title":{"rendered":"Review of The Size of the Truth, by Andrew Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Size of the Truth<\/em><\/p>\n

by Andrew Smith<\/p>\n

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2019. 266 pages.
\nReview written November 6, 2019, from a library book<\/p>\n

When he was four years old, Sam Abernathy was trapped in a well for three days. He was playing Spud with his friend Karim, and an older boy, James Jenkins, threw the ball so high, Karim couldn\u2019t catch it, and Sam stepped in the hole and fell. The whole town of Blue Sky, Texas, rallied to save him, and some people still wear their \u201cPray for Sam\u201d t-shirts.<\/p>\n

Now Sam is eleven years old, and his parents just had him skip two grades from sixth grade to eighth grade. As if it weren\u2019t enough to be known in town as \u201cWell Boy,\u201d now he stands out for being the smallest kid in eighth grade. James Jenkins was held back and is also in eighth grade and his locker is next to Sam\u2019s. Sam is convinced he looks like a murderer.<\/p>\n

Sam\u2019s father has big plans for Sam. He wants him to go to a magnet high school and get a scholarship to study physics. What Sam wants to do is become a chef. He experiments with dishes at Karim\u2019s house. <\/p>\n

The story is told with flashbacks from Sam\u2019s three days in the well interspersed with what\u2019s happening in eighth grade. Sam couldn\u2019t remember what happened for a long time, and now his memories involve a talking armadillo named Bartleby who is very annoying, but shows Sam some interesting things down side tunnels. And at least Sam wasn\u2019t alone!<\/p>\n

The story is about truth and perception. And about parental expectations and learning to speak up. You can\u2019t help but liking Sam, but also feeling sorry for him. I\u2019m happy to report that Sam does learn ways to make things better for himself before the book is done. Here\u2019s a bit from early in the book to give you a feel for Sam\u2019s voice:<\/p>\n

I have an idea for a reality television show.<\/p>\n

The show follows an eleven-year-old boy named Sam Abernathy, who\u2019s been jumped ahead during the first week of the school year, catapulted directly from sixth into eighth grade.<\/p>\n

The show is called Figure It Out, Kid!<\/em><\/p>\n

We are entirely uncertain whether or not the kid makes it out alive.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

simonandschuster.com\/kids<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n

*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I\u2019m posting the oldest reviews I\u2019ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They\u2019re still good books!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Size of the Truth by Andrew Smith Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2019. 266 pages. Review written November 6, 2019, from a library book When he was four years old, Sam Abernathy was trapped in a well for three days. He was playing Spud with his friend Karim, and an older boy, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childrens-fiction-review","category-contemporary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36872"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43568,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36872\/revisions\/43568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}