For survival stories/mysteries with a little bit of romance and amnesia, this book fits the bill. But how many bills request all those things. I felt this book had a bit of multiple personality disorder, wanting to cover all it's bases and I wonder if this would put some readers off who are expecting one genre and then getting another. That being said, the pace moves relatively quickly (more so in the beginning than the middle to end) and it has a male lead character and an amnesia mystery story line that will keep mystery seekers interested.
Because the story opens on a boy who doesn't know who he is or where he is, be takes on the identity of the first thing that comes to him, the author of the book that a homeless man has taken off him and begun to eat. He become Henry David and decides to travel to Walden Pond as he finds this to be the only clue of finding his true identity. Without money or identity, Hank takes up with two homeless kids and gets himself into trouble. This is how the book opens and it feels very fast-paced, action survival story. But Hank quickly escapes this scene and ends up at Walden Pond where he must still struggle to survive but is helped by a number of people and goaded to stay by his crush on a girl that he runs into. This is where the story drags a bit for me. With the intense survival opening, I wonder if most readers will still around for the quieter paced average high school plot line in the middle. The amnesia story line picks up at the end and it gets to be a bit melodramatic but at least the mystery is solved. While the connection to Henry David Thoreau frames the story, it also doesn't seem to have much of a connection to the larger themes of loss, guilt and grief.
Interest level: YA (grade 6+)
Question to the readers: Faced with Henry David's situation, what would you have done in the beginning of the book? Why do you think Henry David came down with amnesia?
Read-alikes: Hatchet, North
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