LitPick Review
In The Secret Life Of Lincoln Jones, eleven-year-old Lincoln, a shy and reserved loner, has to move away with his mother to a worn-down apartment with little money. Lincoln’s mother works in an “old folks’ home,” as he likes to call it. He has to go there every day after school, and the days just seem to drag on forever. Things just never seem to go right for him, not to mention the bullies on the bus and his new school stalker…Kandi Kain.
When these things happen though, Lincoln merely escapes from the rest of the world and enters his own mind. He writes stories, all sorts of stories, all from his own imagination. Lincoln wants to keep where he goes after school a secret and how he hides away and writes endless stories in his notebook, but how can he when Kandi Kain seems to be watching him from around every corner? All odds seem to be against him as Lincoln learns more and more about life, himself, and how his world may be more surreal than he thought. Will Lincoln live to see another day, or will everyone know who he is behind the scenes?
Opinion:
The first thing I have to say is I really just loved the book altogether. I thought it was done very well, and it was just a fantastic book. I could also relate to the main character, Lincoln, very well since I also write a lot. The book is written in a first person point of view, so it was almost like a diary in a way. I don’t read a lot of books with first person point of view because I don’t tend to like them very much, but I really liked this book because the author, Wendelin Van Draanen, made everything very clear and easy to read.
Even though the main character was eleven years old, the book itself wasn’t too young sounding. The only thing I would change was the detail. I think the book needed more of it. I wanted to know more of what Lincoln saw, heard, felt, etc. I wanted to know more of his emotions and feelings, but the book just seemed to skim past a lot of that. But overall, I really liked the book, and I also thought the ending was very clever. I would recommend this book to everyone.
