I picked this one up because it is my son’s next required school read and I never read it when I was supposed to. Well written, decent story; however, I cannot grasp how this is required reading for an honors english student. There are so many other truly wonderful classics that cannot find a way into academia. Perhaps there is just a tremendous lack of classics written by American authors and our schools want to represent some element of honorary patriotism. Nonetheless, it was a fun read – just didn’t add any value to my life.