Posted on behalf of Barb Fouts-Melnychuk

Dr. Donald Massey was at a standstill with our votes between Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick and Counting by Two’s by Holly Goldberg. Luckily I had read Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock so long ago that I had to pick it up and peruse the pages again.  It hit me like a tidal wave as I remembered that Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock disturbed and angried me.  As soon as the main characters states he wants to do “something that matters” my Spidey senses went haywire. The voice in the novel is so real that I wanted to smack Leonard upside the head while hugging him at the same time and telling him just to breathe while he sobbed.  Counting by Two’s on the other hand took me a while to warm up to. Once I was hooked I delighted in this novel and cheered for the protagonist as she weaves her way through life. Her struggles were rifled with injustice, despair and yet hope found a way to shine through.  My heart ached for both characters but the deciding factor is the ending to Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock.  I actually threw the book down and then picked it up to reread the final moments. I kept insisting this can’t be it, but it was. The novels actually seemed written for different ages, Quick’s was so raw that I am unsure how some younger junior high students would handle the content, while Goldberg is something our teens could read and relate to easier. Dr. Donald Massey will leave this round with 2 votes for Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock and 2 votes for Counting by Two’s.