Mister Pip

Authors: Lloyd Jones
Challenge: Just4thehelluvit Challenge
Date Finished: February 20, 2008
Rating: 4/5

"By the time Mr. Watts reached the end of chapter one I felt like I had been spoken to by this boy Pip. This boy who I couldn't see to touch but I knew by ear. I had found a new friend." Page 23

The story begins on an island that has been torn apart by civil war. The only white man left on the island decides that he will attempt to run the school for the island children. He has many different techniques, but the most influential and the center of this story is that he reads to the children from Charles Dickens's classic Great Expectations. Many of the children find a "friend" in that book's main character, Pip. Matilda is one of these children. As the war intensifies the action mounts until finally all is changed.

The story has many subtle heartwarming parts and also many horrifying moments. Overall it is a book that captured my attention and for the majority of the book kept me on the edge of my chair. I did think the story attempted to carry on well past what in my opinion should have been the logical ending. But as a whole it was well worth the time spent reading it.