Remembering the Good Times

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.

Reader reviewed by Mike

Michael Maness
I thought that remembering the good times was a very very boring book. It did go into very very good detail. It had a point about what some kids are doing these days and sometimes back when people thought they were safe from things. Some kids are committing suicide others are just dealing with the pressure. The kids that are committing suicide are being under pressure from families and friends. But the number one reason kids are committing suicide is pressure from school. An example of pressure from home from the book is that Trav has to act perfect for his parents. There isnt much that the school can do but not have hard enough class for the students that want a challenge. The book was a little dull because it just mainly didnt have a lot of action. The characters were a little dull. The main character Buck was a little dull because he didnt talk a lot it was mainly about him narrating the story. Kate was a little more talkative and cute. I liked Kate the best in the book, but she was a little plain. I could identify with Trav because he didnt mind homework and he looked at things differently.
I really didnt like the topic of the book. It was a downer. I know kids need to know about this subject but maybe learning about it a different way would be better.
M Mi
I thought that remembering the good times was a very very boring book. It did go into very very good detail. It had a point about what some kids are doing these days and sometimes back when people thought they were safe from things. Some kids are committing suicide others are just dealing with the pressure. The kids that are committing suicide are being under pressure from families and friends. But the number one reason kids are committing suicide is pressure from school. An example of pressure from home from the book is that Trav has to act perfect for his parents. There isnt much that the school can do but not have hard enough class for the students that want a challenge. The book was a little dull because it just mainly didnt have a lot of action. The characters were a little dull. The main character Buck was a little dull because he didnt talk a lot it was mainly about him narrating the story. Kate was a little more talkative and cute. I liked Kate the best in the book, but she was a little plain. I could identify with Trav because he didnt mind homework and he looked at things differently.
I really didnt like the topic of the book. It was a downer. I know kids need to know about this subject but maybe learning about it a different way would be better.

Reader reviewed by Kelsey N.

I enjoyed this book becuase its tells how three people became friends and out in the world you might hear how some friends became friends like them. I thinkBuck is a good story teller becuase he tells it in way no one else would. But I would hate living in a small trialor like Buck but he has a good life where he lives and he doesnt want to move with his mom and stepdad to a town he doesnt know anything about. Buck has all his friiends in Solcum. I'm remind myself of Buck but I moved to a different twon and went to the same school in my old town. Now Trav has some big problems at home. He always gets beat now I would never do that to anyone that is plan old mean. His dad not that mean about when he went to jail. I would talk to him about it and ask what he did to get in jail and Kate has a good life she lives with her grandmother and mother. This book shows the friendship you should learn somethings about friendship. Buck's really shpws you how you can keep a friendship. Buck's friends meant the most to him. He was really sad when Travis killed himself but Travis didn't went to be in the world anymore. Kate and Polly were sad as much as Buck was. I hope you learn something from this book.
By: Kelsey Nerison

Reader reviewed by TimW

Remembering the Good Times is a quite well done book. In this story Kate, Buck and Trav are best friends. The books characters are well done, but the end of the book is one of the worst Ive seen. Why is the ending of the book so terrible? Because it is sad and gloomy. The character Polly was by far the best character because she was so old and mean. She really adds a lot to this story by her oldness and meanness. This story was written well, but In the end when Trav kills himself it is so unexpected that it almost surprises you. The reason I hated the ending was because Trav comes back all happy and you would think hes fine and his problems are over. Trav was so troubled before and then he was as happy as can be, then the next thing you know he hangs himself in Pollys orchard. Kate and Buck were very sad and couldnt understand why, and neither could I.
The beginning of this book was great with a good setting and everything. The middle of the book was pretty good too, the storyline wasnt bad either. The part that ruined the book was the ending, it was too unexpected and gloomy. The next thing that kind of ruined the book was that it was so boring and drawn out it didnt have enough action. Overall this book was a an okay book worth reading. But I will say this book is very boring and the end was not well written, it was too sad, they dont have a happy part in the whole last two chapters.

Reader reviewed by Brittney M.

I didnt really like and understand the Remembering The Good Times. I mean that it was an ok book but it didnt make that much sense. I felt that the author took a while to get to the main point and I still do not know what the main point is! I think I might have an idea what the main point is. I think the main point is to not to kill yourself no matter what because someone will and does care about you, and they would be sad if you were gone. Also, maybe another point is that if you did want to kill yourself all of you friends would miss you a lot.
Like I said before it was confusing! What I mean is it took the author a while to explain things that the characters were doing. Then when he did finally explain, the characters were doing something else. Then the process starts again! Also, its confusing by all the surroundings. I didnt really like it because it was not a happy book! I like happy books and this one was kind of depressing with Trav killing himself and all. Then another sad part was when Mr. Kirby (Travs father) says that he is no longer a father/parent.
After that Polly says some nice words but its sad the rest of the book. Those are most of the reasons why others and I really dislike this book. Some other reasons I do like this book is that it tells a story about friendship and it is a little happier in the beginning but gets sadder as you go on. This book is to sad to read in a school classroom.

Reader reviewed by Ben H.

I disliked Remembering the Good Times for three reasons. One reason I disliked Remembering the Good Times because it was too sad. The second reason I disliked the book was because it was too confusing. The third reason I disliked it was because it dealt to much with Buck and not quite enough about everyone else.
First I thought it was too sad because not only did Travis commit suicide, but Scotty was shot during a robbery. Travis hung himself in a clearing in an orchard, one of Kates most favorite spots to relax. Also I thought it was sad because not even the school administrators, the assistant principal, or the principal cared much about the death of Travis Kirby. For this reason Mr. Kirby resigned from being president of the school.
Second I thought that the book was too confusing. One way Remembering the Good Times was confusing was because nobody really knows why Travis would hang himself in the first place. Another way the book was confusing was because nobody really knows why Travis would steal little kid toys from a store.
Third the book talked to much about Buck and not enough about everybody else. One way I thought the book talked too much about Buck was because the book told of what he did over the summer and not a lot about what Kate and Travis did over the summer. Secondly the book told about working and nothing about Kate and Travis working. Lastly the book talked about what Buck would usually do for fun, but wouldnt talk much about what Polly did for fun.

Reader reviewed by Rianna L

Remembering the Good times Critique

This is a book about three friends. During the story, one of the friends is kind of messed up in the head and decides to hang himself.
I think that there was no point in reading this book. I dont see why our teacher made us read a book about a kid who kills himself! What if reading this book made a student want to kill or hurt themselves?
Also, it is extremely emotional because a lot of my friends and I had a friend that died in forth grade. His birthday was on Halloween, which is the day she gave us this book which was surprisingly sad and made some of my friends cry.
This book was boring, had no point, and did not keep my interest whatsoever. It was lame and did not grab my attention. It was a bummer that I was forced to read it because I didnt enjoy this book at all.
I dont think we shouldve had to read this book for many reasons. One is that the beginning was not good at all. I think the author didnt emphasize the main idea until after the middle of the book. Nothing excited me, not even the suicide part, it just made me depressed. No one wants to read about a messed up kid unless its a comedy, and I wouldnt think that any one would want to write about it either.
Another bad feature of this book was the part when Mr. Slater beat up Skeeter. I mean seriously, a middle aged man, rather large, beats up a student in high school. That is so messed up!
Finally, we should have not had to read this book, it was a bad choice.