This Much Huxley Knows, a review by Di

THIS MUCH HUXLEY KNOWS
Gail Aldwin

Black Rose Writing
July 8, 2021
217 pages

Amazon | Goodreads

First of all, I absolutely love the cover of this book.

Huxley, a seven year boy, is the star of this book. The story is about his family, his school life, and other boy things. It’s all told through his eyes and in his words.

In the beginning, I found Huxley to be a bit of a smart aleck. But, I soon found out that I was only half right. He IS smart, but not a smart aleck. Huxley is a wonderful character, I soon warmed up to him. He is very observant, compassionate, imaginative, intuitive and humorous. Perhaps it’s a bit of a stretch for a 7 year old boy but I really enjoyed his thoughts.

There are a few relevant topics covered in the book including bullying, racism, gangs and importantly friendship. He shows understanding and caring of these contemporary issues at a young age.

Huxley loves to manipulate words. For example, he will change the word Tolerate to Tall-your-ate. Reputation becomes Rep-you-station. Of course, he finds it funny and the adults in his life find it annoying. And, he loves chocolate!

Well-written book. Huxley’s character was very well developed. I could imagine having a conversation with him. The personalities of the adults in the book are sort of hazy. But, we have to remember that we are seeing them from Huxley’s perspective. It reminded me of the technique used in Peanuts television shows – when an adult speaks all we hear is what-whah-whah. While the adults do have voices in the book, Huxley is certainly the one who stands out.

I already mentioned that I love the cover. Now that I have finished the book, I love it even more. The boy in the photo is showing exuberance and his joy for life. That is Huxley and it was refreshing to view the world through his eyes and his thoughts!

Thank you to the author for providing me with a copy of this book for review purposes.

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