Remembering the Good Times

Reader reviewed by Alyssa K.

The book Remembering the Good Times is a book talking about teenage suicide and other sad tragedies teenagers go through. I think this book was ok, but I dont think I would recommend it to kids 5th grade or younger. One reason is because they are not yet teenager. Little kids dont need to know about suicide. Some kids go through it with their families though. This story is about three teenagers named Buck, Kate, and Trav. At a point in the story they all meet and eventually meet Skeeter. At school one day Skeeter molests Ms. Slater. Kate, at the dance they had at school she called Mr. Slater and he came and beat up Skeeter. He never went to that school again. Before any of that happened, Buck joined the football team. So one day Kate and Trav came and found him playing. Kate yelled and screamed at him, telling him that he didnt even like football anyway. Buck finally said that he would quit. While he was on the team he met a cheerleader named Rusty. She was from California. Later in the story Trav goes through major tragedies and happens to commit suicide. Everybody then becomes sad and miserable, wanting to become Travs best friend. Kate and Buck both were thinking how it would be like without Trav there to play cards with them and Polly. When they have the funeral for Trav at school, a lot of parents and students attend for a little gathering. When that was over Kate and Buck went over to Pollys. They all talked about how much they are going to miss Trav. Then suddenly remember all the good times. All of a sudden they start talking about Polly Prior. Kate says, She may be the third oldest in Slocom Township, but when it comes to meanness shes number one.
Overall I like this book. One thing I didnt like about the book is that it is a sad book, and Im not a big fan of sad books. That is what I thought of the book.

Reader reviewed by Gage M

My review of this book is that it was okay. I started reading this book expecting it to be heavily laden with sorry and anguish. Instead, it was happy, about the good times as the title implies. It was a very boring read for me because I am used to fast paced reading; but this was a slow read. This book seemed to crawl along, get to an interesting part, and then die out.

I do not believe that the book could have been any better for me because I enjoy books with action. This book lacks action, which made it an almost torturous read for me.

The main fault to me is the books length. It seems that it could have been either shorter or longer. The author metaphorically dragged the book through the mud to add pages. While at the same time it could have been longer, adding chapters after Springtime; which abruptly ended.

The saddest part of this story is when Travis took his life and left behind friends who did not know how to deal with it. I can remotely understand why he would do this. He knows about conflicts in the world that the people around him are oblivious too, and that annoys him to no end. He also felt pressured by his parents, yet babied at school. But still, nothing is impossible, and I believe that he should have hung on to his life, for he had a lot to live for, and lots to give to the world.

All in all this was a good book, but it just was not meant for me. I am sure that there are people out there who absolutely love this book, but sadly, I do not.

All these are my reasons for giving this a rating of 3. It has good concept and is realistic; but it was not my kind of book.

Reader reviewed by Kylie R


I thought that the book Remembering the Good Times was good. It has a confusing storyline. I thought that it was confusing because it first talks about how Kate and Buck met but then it goes on a year later and talks about how school is going for them. Then it goes on and talks about how Kate and Buck met Trav and how Trav and Buck met Polly. They dont say much about Kates mom and they dont say anything that happened to Kates dad. I really would like to know what happened to Kates dad.
I really liked all the activities that we did in class. My favorite was Lit Circles. I liked Lit Circles because it really helped me understand what happened in that chapter. I did not really like all of the questions that we had to do. I thought that they were more of a trouble because when you are reading the chapter you dont even try to understand what is happening because we are just looking for the answers.
My favorite part in the book was when Buck came back from his moms all summer and he went to go find Kate. I liked it because it tells how much each of them have changed and how they are becoming more and more different. It is very descriptive. I also like it when Buck went out for football and only lasted for 3 days. I thought that that was kind of funny. I thought that Rusty Hazenfield was very interesting. She sounds like she has very different style and has a mind all her own. All in all this is a very good yet different book. I think you will enjoy it!!

Reader reviewed by Taylor K


Remembering the Good times is a very emotional and moving novel. I love how author Richard Wayne Peck makes it so that the character Buck is telling the story instead of having the author telling us the story himself.
The reason I like how he wrote this story is because it gives the book more excitement in my opinion because most books have the author telling the story instead of a character in the story telling us the story. Now I will tell you a little bit about how the characters meet. Buck Mendenhall is walking through a field one day just to waste some time and then off in the distance he saw something in the woods. So he goes to check it out. When he got to the woods he could hear some noises coming from the woods and he waited until he could see what it was. It was a 13 year old girl named Kate Lucas and at first when he saw her he was surprised. I mean you would be surprised to if you saw a girl your age coming out of the woods. Well anyway he asked her what she was doing in the woods and she explained to him what she was doing and where she was going and stuff like that. And after they finished introducing themselves she asked if he wanted to see a colt being born and since he had nothing better to do he went. So they watched a colt being born.

Reader reviewed by Joe

Remembering the Good Times was not a bad book. I liked it a little bit. I would rate it a three out of five. I just dont like books with people dieing in them. But it wasnt the worst book I ever read. It really skipped along. One minute it would be talking about summer then it was already the school year.
The reason I would rate this book a three out of five is because it skipped too much, to fast. It was a little confusing to me. I like reading at a nice slow pace. I cant read very fast or I have to reread it. I had to reread in this book a little bit. Otherwise I would not have understood what was going on in the book. That is one of the reasons I did not like this book.
In the books I read people do not die. Therefore I did not like the book Remembering the good times. And I did not enjoy how the character died in Remembering the Good Times. I do not like it when people die in real life. I do not like funerals either.
But I did like some of the book. Like how you do not know what is happening next in the book. I also liked the suspense. And how the author gives you hints. But you really actually do not expect it. Like when Travis goes to jail he never even knew it was going to happen. Overall it was not a really bad book.

Reader reviewed by Jessica S.

Remembering the Good Times

I liked this book because it gave a lot of different types of morals and told about real-life situations that can be painful. It reminded me about the relationships with some of my own friends, and how much I really love them. The way the book talks about grandparents and step-parents definitely relates to my own life.

My friends and I are very different. No matter that our grades, interests, or where we live are sometimes totally opposites. We have a great time together no matter where we are, just as long as were there. Kate is the Slocum norm female, Trav is the super-genius sub, and Buck is the drifting somewhere unknown foreigner. Theyre not judgmental and they stick together.

Although my grandma isnt as old as Polly, she can get mean. But she always means it to teach, never just because she feels like being grouchy. My grandma always seems to know something no one else knows. Shell give you a sly smile and surprise you later. You can come to Grandma with anything and shell find a way to fix it and make everything alright, like when Polly found the group costumes for Halloween or when she gave a meaningful speech for Trav at the end of the book.

My parents divorced when I was really young, so I didnt mind that they werent together because I couldnt remember a time when they were. I do recall, though, not enjoying the changes in parents. I gained two new parents and a couple of new siblings too early. I have two homes now, and it can get very frustrating. Theres always changes somewhere else, or Im not use to that place and they have a separate life that Im not a part of because one family lives states away. Its like Bucks situation, because he felt like he was intruding on Mr. and Mrs. Wunderlichs new marriage.

Reader reviewed by Justyne B

Justyne Burghardt
Period 8


Remembering the Good Times is a book about friendship, love, and the lose of a loved one. This book has high points of suspense. I would recommend this book to people that have lost someone they loved, especially if they were young.
This book is about 3 friends, Buck, Kate, and Trav. All these kids are smart and athletic. None of them have a bad home you life, so I wonder why one of them would feel so bad about them self. It might not make sense now but if you read the book it will.

They have fun times together and like to play card with Polly. Polly is a fun, exciting old woman. All of them get along very well. They enjoy each others presence. Just one thing tears them apart. They never thought it would happen but it did. As you are reading you could never expect it. They always act like everything g is ok.

Sometimes things just happen. And they find that out the hard way. All of a sudden he dies. And they can do nothing about it. He is gone and he is never coming back. A lot of people can relate to this. I would recommend Remembering the Good Time to someone who needs to know that it happens and that they are not the only one.

The book my take a while to get into but once you get into it its very interesting. So give it a chance it is a heart warming book.

Reader reviewed by taylor L

Taylor Lowe
Period 6
11/18/08


I didnt like Remembering the good times because of many reasons. A few reasons why I didnt like it are, one is that it wasnt very original. Another reason why I didnt like was because why did Travis have to die? Why couldnt it be a happy story instead of a murderous killing story? One more reason for me hating the book remembering the good times is that they could have described the story a little bit better and mad it a little longer than what it originally was. But not everything in remembering the good times I hated. One example in the story is, the activities we did in the group, like one specific project we did which was showing examples of Kates family.

Some more reasons why I didnt like the book are that there was not any picture in it. The pictures do give a good description and if a person cant visualize the event happening in the story then how are the people suppose to get remembering the good times? A few more reasons why the book wasnt the worst and they are, every now and then the book would actually give enough detail about something. An example of the book was when the narrator was describing Pollys room to the people and the costumes that Travis, Kate, and buck wore on Halloween. All in all the book was sort of enjoyable you could get into the story and visualize a few things and details. If I had to recommend the book Remembering the good times I would say it would be an alright book for someone to be doing on there free time or as a graded free reading book.

Reader reviewed by nathan k

Personally I did not like Remembering the Good Times, because it did not hold my attention and it was boring. It did not hold my attention because parts of it were cheesy and some did not make sense at all. And it kept talking about how Buck wanted to go out with Kate, but he never tried to do anything to get her to go out with him. Now do not get me wrong, it was a good book just not for me.
Remembering the Good Times is about a group of three friends who meet in a town called Slocum. The three friends names were Kate, Buck Mendenhall, the narrator, and Travis Kirby. Travis or Trav for short is one of those people who strive for perfection. Buck Mendenhall lives with his dad in Slocum. He and his dad live in a trailer home in the back of the towns small gas station which is run by Irene and Scotty. Kate is a girl who Buck meets while running through Polly Priors pear orchard. When they meet Kate asks Buck if he wants to see a baby horse being born. Buck says sure and they go see it being born.
Then, when the school year starts, they meet someone else. Travis Kirby. After that they kept hanging out everyday and their friendship kept growing. Finally they started playing card games and board games like Monopoly with Polly Prior. After about two years something tragic happens that could tear their friendship apart.

Reader reviewed by taylor l

I didnt like Remembering the good times because of many reasons. A few reasons why I didnt like it are, one is that it wasnt very original. Another reason why I didnt like was because why did Travis have to die? Why couldnt it be a happy story instead of a murderous killing story? One more reason for me hating the book remembering the good times is that they could have described the story a little bit better and mad it a little longer than what it originally was. But not everything in remembering the good times I hated. One example in the story is, the activities we did in the group, like one specific project we did which was showing examples of Kates family.

Some more reasons why I didnt like the book are that there was not any picture in it. The pictures do give a good description and if a person cant visualize the event happening in the story then how are the people suppose to get remembering the good times? A few more reasons why the book wasnt the worst and they are, every now and then the book would actually give enough detail about something. An example of the book was when the narrator was describing Pollys room to the people and the costumes that Travis, Kate, and buck wore on Halloween. All in all the book was sort of enjoyable you could get into the story and visualize a few things and details. If I had to recommend the book Remembering the good times I would say it would be an alright book for someone to be doing on there free time or as a graded free reading book.