Book #97: The One-in-a-Million Boy by Monica Wood

I really enjoyed listening to this book. I was worried it was going to be too sad--you know going into it beforehand that it's about a father of a young boy who died--but it wasn't. It was definitely sad in parts, but mostly, it was sweet. The story revolves around Quinn Porter, the boy's father, who is told to finish his son's Boy Scout commitment to take care of a 104-year-old woman's yard for the rest of the summer. He gets to know this woman, Ona Vitkus, who seems at first to be crabby to the extreme, but who warms up to him and they eventually get to know each other and like each other. Mixed throughout the main plot are lots and lots of flashbacks in both of their lives, transcriptions of the interview the boy did with Ona about her life, and lists of Guiness Book World Record holders, which the boy was obsessed with. Before his death, the boy had convinced Ona to go out for a world record of Oldest Licensed Driver, and she gets Quinn involved in her attempt to find her birth certificate and get her license renewed. And she also helps Quinn to get to know his son in a way he never did before he died.

There isn't all that much that happens in this book--a short road trip, a burglary, Quinn working and trying to get a job--but the plot isn't as important as the flashbacks and the character development, particularly in the case of Ona. I loved learning about her life and beginning to care about her as a person, and imagining how her life has changed and developed over more than a century of life. I also loved Quinn's character, how he is an itinerant musician and obviously wasn't a super-involved dad, but how he is trying really hard to care and to make up for his mistakes in the only way he knows how. I also loved the boy, who is only there in memories and flashbacks, but is the main impetus for Ona and Quinn and Belle's (his mother) actions, and who brings them together even in his absence.

All in all, a really great story. It made me want to keep listening and do dishes for longer just to have a chance to keep going.