{"id":9821,"date":"2018-10-15T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-15T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=9821"},"modified":"2018-10-06T11:12:43","modified_gmt":"2018-10-06T16:12:43","slug":"hope-the-journey-is-worth-it-for-charlie-and-me-421-miles-from-home-by-mark-lowery-book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=9821","title":{"rendered":"Hope the journey is worth it for Charlie and Me: 421 Miles from Home, by Mark Lowery (book review)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div id=\"attachment_9823\" style=\"width: 209px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9823\" data-attachment-id=\"9823\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?attachment_id=9823\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Charlie-and-Me.jpg?fit=350%2C527&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"350,527\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Charlie and Me\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;US cover&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Charlie-and-Me.jpg?fit=350%2C527&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-9823\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Charlie-and-Me.jpg?resize=199%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"US book cover of Charlie and Me, by Mark Lowery, published by Yellow Jacket Books| recommended on BooksYALove.com\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Charlie-and-Me.jpg?resize=199%2C300&amp;ssl=1 199w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Charlie-and-Me.jpg?w=350&amp;ssl=1 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-9823\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">US cover<\/p><\/div><div id=\"attachment_9824\" style=\"width: 206px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9824\" data-attachment-id=\"9824\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?attachment_id=9824\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Charlie-and-Me-UK.jpg?fit=196%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"196,300\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Charlie and Me UK\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;UK cover&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Charlie-and-Me-UK.jpg?fit=196%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Charlie-and-Me-UK.jpg?resize=196%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"UK book cover of Charlie and Me, by Mark Lowery, published by Yellow Jacket Books | recommended on BooksYALove.com\" width=\"196\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-9824\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-9824\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">UK cover<\/p><\/div>It was the best vacation their family ever had,<br \/>\nCharlie loved the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/science\/2017\/12\/20\/first-english-dolphins-found-living-coast-cornwall\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">dolphins<\/a>, Martin loved the sea&#8230;<br \/>\nJust have to go back, recapture the good times!<\/p>\n<p>Most middle grade guys wouldn&#8217;t voluntarily take their very individual younger brother on a very long train trip, but Martin isn&#8217;t most guys: his extremely different brother has been his annoyance and best friend since Charlie&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ibtimes.co.uk\/heres-why-premature-babies-may-face-learning-disabilities-later-life-1603407\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">premature birth<\/a> ten years ago.<\/p>\n<p>So if Charlie would be happiest seeing the dolphins again at the seacoast hundreds of miles away, then that&#8217;s what Martin will do!  No need to involve ever-sad Mum and always-working Dad &#8211; not the same since that vacation&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Us or UK cover &#8211; which do you prefer for this journey saga?<br \/>\n**kmm<\/p>\n<p><strong>Book info<\/strong>:\u00a0Charlie and Me: 421 Miles From Home \/ Mark Lowery. Yellow Jacket Books (Bonnier), 2018. [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.marklowery.co.uk\/charlie-coming-soon\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">author site<\/a>]\u00a0 [<a href=\"https:\/\/littlebeebooks.com\/books\/charlie-and-me-421-miles-from-home\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">publisher site<\/a>]\u00a0 Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.<\/p>\n<p><strong>My book talk<\/strong>: Getting back to the Cornwall seaside town where they saw the dolphins will make Charlie so happy that 13-year-old Martin takes all his savings, puts their favorite Christmas cookie tin in his pack, and heads to the train station with his neurologically special little brother &#8211; later, they&#8217;ll update their parents&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>If the Dolphinwatch app is correct, they can get to the coast just in time&#8230;<br \/>\nAs long as the railway police don&#8217;t stop them, like Mum and Dad would have if Martin had told them his plans&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Will the Angry Girl they meet on the third train (or maybe fourth) help them or not?<br \/>\nWhat if they run out of money on the way or Charlie has another asthma attack?<br \/>\nCan Martin really pull this off for his best-bud, pain-in-the-youknowwhat, dolphin-obsessed little brother?<\/p>\n<p>Each chapter begins with the distance traveled (mostly in the right direction) and one of Martin&#8217;s poems as the two brothers traverse England on this singular journey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was the best vacation their family ever had, Charlie loved the dolphins, Martin loved the sea&#8230; Just have to go back, recapture the good times! Most middle grade guys wouldn&#8217;t voluntarily take their very individual younger brother on a very long train trip, but Martin isn&#8217;t most guys: his extremely different brother has been [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[22,75,11,5,37,16,32,18,40,44,27,49,184,31,256,93,15,9,21,35,3,6,61],"class_list":["post-9821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","tag-behavior","tag-brothers","tag-communication","tag-coping","tag-death","tag-determination","tag-england","tag-family","tag-fathers","tag-friendship","tag-medical","tag-memories","tag-mothers","tag-non-us-author","tag-ocean","tag-poetry","tag-relationships","tag-school","tag-self-image","tag-surprises","tag-teens","tag-travel","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Charlie-and-Me.jpg?fit=350%2C527&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9821"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9831,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9821\/revisions\/9831"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}