Book Review: Park’s Quest

Park’s Quest by Katherine Patterson ☆☆
[C] A 1988 children’s novel written by U.S. novelist Katherine Paterson. The book focuses on an 11-year-old boy named Parkington Waddell Broughton 5th (who prefers to be called “Park”) and his attempt to learn about his father, a U.S. Marine Corps pilot who was killed in the Vietnam War when Park was three months old. Park’s mother, who is elusive about providing the boy with information on his father, arranges for Park to spend a two-week vacation with his grandfather and uncle. During this visit, Park establishes an uneasy friendship with the daughter of his uncle’s Vietnamese wife and slowly begins to piece together the full context of his family’s history.

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I had high hopes when I checked this out, since she did write Bridge to Terabithia and I liked that a lot when I was little, even though it made me sad. I didn’t really like this book, though. I don’t know… maybe it was the way the subject matter was approached… and the plot twist annoyed rather than intrigued me.

I give it two stars out of five because it was… okay, but it’s not the type of book I’d want to re-read.