Don't let the sunny cover fool you. This book will break your heart a hundred times. I loved it. I might donate a copy to my kids' intermediate school library, an idea that's never occurred to me before. 
 Each character - adult and child - is so real, so imperfect. The experience of being in upper elementary school is vivid and realistic and heartbreaking. I feel like every librarian, teacher, and parent of that age should read this just to remember how hard it is (kids can tell us, of course, but reading it this way made it easier for me to remember and understand). 
 I do wish the cover were different - a little more serious, and the model airplane skews it young to me. It'd be great for a book club. I really, really hope that kids find it and enjoy it.