Response #2

The book begins with the main character, Josh, arriving at his great aunt's house in a rural setting located in the made-up town of Carbon City, Washington. We later learn that his parents are going to India for the summer due to their work. Josh is forced to stay the aunt of his step-father, a woman he has never met before. He is angry because the family had just moved from Vermont to Minneapolis and he had just made the baseball team and was hoping to meet new friends. Instead he has to go to a place he doesn't want to be. Carbon City is very small and everyone knows everyone. Also, his aunt has no television and there is no cell phone service. He feels very isolated and alone.

His aunt is quite a character and we learn that quickly when she and Josh first enter the home to find a bat in the kitchen. His aunt gets her shotgun and shoots it off the ceiling. It falls behind the cupboard where they cannot reach it, so she just leaves it there. In addition there is a peacock that the aunt is convinced is her dead sister. His aunt has over 50 acres of land and tells him about a treehouse in the woods. He finds the treehouse and cleans it so that he can spend time there reading and looking for deer. In addition to seeing deer, he finds a cat. He thinks the cat is hungry and feeds it some of his food. When he asks the aunt for cat food she says no, that she doesn't want any stray cats around the house - especially since her aunt, as a peacock, is on the front porch.

Josh thinks his aunt doesn't like animals and wonders if there is a shelter to take to cat too. His aunt tells him about the community coming together to build a shelter and that everyone worked on it, but at the end, all the money was taken by an armed robber. Josh decides to ride a bike he found to town to buy cat food and not his aunt. When he returns with the food and goes to the tree house he finds his book has been moved - but nothing has been taken. He wonders who has been there.

Product placement:
Page 3: Greyhound bus station
Page 11: Stellaluna
Page 33: Mall of America
Page 50: Wal-Mart