Dexter The Tough-By:Margret Peterson Haddix; Illustrated By: Mark Elliot

I really liked this novel. It was about an elementary boy experiencing a lot in his life. He is attending a school, living with his grandma and the reader finds out later that his dad is very sick. By looking at the cover I thought it was going to be about a boy causing all kinds of trouble for no apart reason, because the book starts out with him writing a short story about how he beat up a kid in the bathroom and all the trouble that he caused on the first day of school. But later the reader coming to find out why he is causing all this trouble. He is dealing with a lot in his life. I liked it because the author solved a lot of the problems in the book but some of the things like his fathers sickness weren't completely solved because the time period that the book covered would have been unrealistic for a father with cancer to magically become all better. That's one thing that really bothers me in children's novels, when authors try to solve all the problems in the book when the book takes place in such a short time period. The author covered a lot of sophisticated issues like friendship, sickness, apologizing, learning right from wrong and finding yourself. It was also something different from what I have read previously because the main character was a boy. I enjoyed reading something from a different point of view. I thought it would be harder for me to relate to the character but I really felt for the boy and at one part I even teared up a little bit. The main character wasn't so dramatic and full of gossip like some of the novels I've read with a female point of view. The writing was more of the facts and what really happened. I think it's interesting to see the difference in genders of the main character of children's novels, because the characters sound so different even for characters at young ages. I also liked how the book was written within a fairly short time period and it didn't drag throughout the whole year. It told the story of a boy transitioning in his life and it ended when he started to figure out himself and I think that was perfect for this particular story.