When Zachary Beaver Came to Town is an interesting book about loneliness set in the 1970s in Antler, Texas. Toby Wilson, a young adventurous boy, is the protagonist of the story. As the story opens, Toby's mother, Opalina, is in Nashville trying out for a singing contest and pursuing her dream like a country singing star. She isn't coming back anytime soon. This leaves Toby home alone with his father, a mailman who also raises worms. Toby enjoys riding his bike around Antler always trying to find something new and interesting with his best friend, Cal. Toby has a crush on a beautiful girl named Scarlett Stalling, but Scarlett is dating Juan. Unlike Toby, Cal is part of a big family, the McKnight family, which also includes: Mr. McKnight, Mrs. McKnight, Wayne, who is fighting in the Vietnam War, Billy, and Kate. Nothing much happens in Antler. Not until when Zachary Beaver, the fattest boy in the world, parks his trailer in the boring town and gives Toby and Cal something new and interesting. The whole reason why Zachary is Antler is because of his circus act. Paulie, his guardian, leaves for a couple of days, looking for some new acts to include in his show. Sherrif Levi warns Zachary that if Paulie doesn't come back in a couple of days, he will have to be sent to a foster home.
I choice a rating of 7.3 for this book. One thing I enjoyed is the foreshadowing that Kimberly Willis Holt gives the reader and trying to guess how the various problems get solved. Not to give too much away, but the scene with the baptism was really cool because I never got baptized and it is really interesting reading this scene from a kid's point of view.
I didn't give this book a 10 for two reasons. The first reason is because it didn't have very exciting scenes. Even though I understand the author made the setting a sleepy town, I prefer more action in books that I read. Another reason I din't give it a 10 is because I wanted more information about Opalina and the singing contest. Even though her letters reported how she felt, I wanted to get deeper into her story.
I would definitely recommend this book to kids, especially kids who like books steeped in setting such as Because of Winn-Dixie.
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