Parents' Guide to

The Boy on the Porch

By Blair Jackson, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 9+

Wonderful story of mute boy mysteriously left on farm.

The Boy on the Porch Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

Community Reviews

age 12+

Based on 1 parent review

age 12+

Life lessons

My son needed to read this for his Book Club. I like to read the books as well so I can ask him questions before he goes to help him have a real conversation about the book. I felt the book should be for a little older children. However, it was fine for my 9 yr old. We really talked about how a parent could leave their child on the door step of a stranger's home. Unfortunately, this has happened in my family and I was able to explain better why I have a cousins we don't know that well when I am so close to the other cousins. My Aunt left her children on a porch, but she never came back. They found her as adults and that's when we met. I have mixed feelings of sharing the ugliness of our world. Glad the school assigned this book.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (1):
Kids say (1):

This wonderfully told story is, at its core, a mystery: Who is the boy on the porch, and where did he come from? Sharon Creech does a superb job of building tension as the story progresses, balancing vignettes of the boy's happy life on the farm with scenes of the anxious search for his identity.

The chapters are short and the prose simple and straightforward -- much like the humble country people it depicts. Yet there's also a realistic complexity to the main characters, and it's easy to relate to their shifting emotions as situations and circumstances change. This is a great book for young readers, who will enjoy both the story and the mostly fond depiction of rural life (in an unspecified year).

Book Details

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