What Alvin wanted Book

You know how sometimes you start a book when you're a kid and then you spend years trying to find it again and when you finally do it's not anywhere near as cool as you remembered? Too bad. It shouldn't happen, but it does.

"Wenny Has Wings" is one of those books that never quite lives up to its potential. The idea is strong, there are many good elements, but the execution is somehow underwhelming. When I was 12 or 14 the voice worked just fine for me, but reading it now I have trouble connecting to Will. Instead of cynical, he just sees kind of whiny and childish. Carey just has a difficult task of not only telling the story in a child's voice, but staying within the limits of a child's writing capabilities. I know my prose wasn't too good when I was 11, and boys tend to be less expressive than girls the same age. It's just a hard style to pull off.

The plot seemed a little rambling to me somehow, even though there were interesting symbolic things like the tree house, the tunnel of death, and the father's photographs. I tended to get annoyed with the over-reactive parents and the rather stereotypical kids at school. Sometimes it's just all a little too obvious. You know Will is going to tell someone about his near death experience eventually. I just feel like it could have done better, like there was this postmodern, mystical, lyric, coming-of-age novel that was whirling around in the author's head and what came out was a simplified version of it.