Itchy Donner

by Doug Lambeth

Itchy Donner doesn't have much going for him. A rashy eleven-year-old growing up fatherless in a dying backwoods Idaho timber town, Itchy is obsessed with the past-specifically, his family's past. Itchy's the great-great-great grandson of Tamsen Donner, the Donner Party's famous matriarch, and Itchy studies his ancestor's history with the relentlessness that only a true nerd can muster. He and his mother Irene live poor but happy in a ramshackle singlewide, and Irene encourages Itchy's interest and pride in his illustrious ancestors. But their predictable lives are forever turned upside-down when the wandering gyppo logger Red Donner-Itchy's blustery, larger-than-life father-blows back into town looking to make amends for his past and put his family back together again. ITCHY DONNER is a tragi-comic tale of liars and dreamers, of the distant Donner ghosts who haunt Itchy's present, and of Itchy's quest to understand the past, know his father, and make his family whole again.

386 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2007

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

I won this in a Goodreads Firstreads Giveaway.

The beginning of the book has not drawn me in as I expected it to. I keep waiting for some excitement but so far nothing.
I was a little put off that this book was identified as young adult, yet the author used the f-word 3 times within the first 20 or so pages. To me that would gear it more towards high school not young adult.

The language in this book was horrendous! The story felt like it was something a middle schooler would be interested in, but the language was even a bit excessive for high schoolers.


The author is very wordy and takes pages to describe things that seem completely meaningless. He does finally bring everything together in the end (a bit predictably) but takes way too many pages to get there.

I would not recommend this book.

[travelgirlut · Rating 1 out of 5]

I won this book as a first-read. I read the first few pages and found no reason to go on. Also influential in not finishing is when I flip through the book, every page has swear words on it, and not always the not-so-bad ones. So I can't say anything about the plot or storyline, but life is too short to read books that are not interesting from the get-go.

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this on Firstreads!!

Could definately have cleaned up the language. Good story line, but distracted by the language.

[Mikie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book in a First Reads Giveaway.