The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet by Reif LarsenMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
I thought I would never finish this book. It took me nearly 6 months to read it, and it felt like even longer than that. It was the book cover that initially caught my attention. I found it for $1 in the bargain bin at Borders (say that 3 times fast), and it looked very unique and interesting.
The plot was intriguing: A 12-year-old boy, who happens to be a child prodigy in the area of cartography, hitchhikes his way across the country to accept the prestigious Baird Award at the Smithsonian in Washington DC. The committee giving him the award is unaware that he is only 12 years old, and have based their decision solely on his work in cartography. T.S.'s parents are unaware that he is leaving. And so, Tecumseh Sparrow Spivet finds himself on an adventure of a lifetime.
Unfortunately, I was mostly disappointed with the book. The story was all over the place and the writing was unnecessarily verbose. The sidebar illustrations, while unique and imaginative, did not add much to the story and ended up being nothing more than a distraction. The author completely changed direction in the middle of the book, and began telling a story of T.S.'s great-great-grandmother. The story ended abruptly without resolution, and went back to T.S's adventure. Overall, I was not impressed.
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