The Book of Fred Book

I was truly surprised by this book. I chose it because I'm teaching a unit on "families" in my critical thinking class and I thought a brainwashed girl from a religious cult moving into a foster home would make for an interesting discussion. I grew so attached to the wonderfully flawed characters that I was ready to throw my book across the room if the author pulled a "My Sister's Keeper" on me.

There are five chapters (or "books") told from different points of view. In the first we journey with Mary Fred from "The Outpost" (where her parents have been arrested) to her new foster home. She has never watched TV, never been to a big supermarket, and her parents don't believe in doctors or medicine. She believes there's a big apocalyptic event happening in the near future and that anyone who is not a believer (called Lackers) will burn for eternity afterward. She is, however, nothing but polite and her extreme naivete is endearing. She is torn between her loyalty to her family/religion/beliefs and the wonders of the modern world.

The next three chapters are told from her foster mother's, sister's, and uncle's perspectives. And I won't give away what happens in the final chapter (called Revelations). What I love about the way it is written is that it reveals the various wounds each character is carrying and how Mary Fred infects them with something that motivates them to change. Very unexpectedly, Uncle Roy's chapter moved me the most and literally brought tears to my eyes.

The book is a slow burn. At first I wasn't sure where it was going, but by the end of the 3rd "book" I couldn't put it down. It was as if Mary Fred's energy had infected me as well. It is a true, if not unusual, "coming of age" story that touches on so many contemporary issues but does not get overly sentimental.

Another reviewer stated that her only complaint was that she couldn't believe Mary Fred would have been so "non-judgemental" of her "lacker" foster family and assimilate so quickly into the real world, because it would take more than a few months to undo 15 years of brainwashing. I didn't have so much trouble with that as thinking that it was a miracle the students at the high school didn't pick on her mercilessly.