The Honest Truth

"The Honest Truth" by Dan Gemeinhart is a wonderful book for the middle school, teen, and YA audiences as well as the old adult audience as well. It's a well developed story with engaging characters and dialogue. It has terrific flow and descriptions that paint a vivid picture of scenes and what's going on.

This is a book that is a good one for parents to read before the younger range it's targeted for to allow for discussion of some of the more difficult topics within it. It makes for a way to not only open up discussion but helps start a way of beginning a new shared experience of books. A family book club so to speak. And this is a great book to start with since it's one everyone can and will enjoy reading!

A powerful story about a boy, Mark, who runs away from home—and his recurring cancer treatments—to climb Mt. Rainier. Most of the story is from Mark's point of view, as he journeys toward the mountain with his faithful dog, Beau, by his side. But Mark's chapters are separated by scenes about his best friend, Jessie, as she struggles with deciding whether to tell his parents and the authorities what she knows about Mark's disappearance. Mark encounters a lot of obstacles on his journey—on top of being a very sick kid—and it's hard not to read this book with a knot in your gut, expecting the worst to happen at any moment. But Mark's story is also about friendship and hope. And yes, the end of the book—especially a scene with Beau the dog that I won't spoil—made me cry.

I think that this book is very purposeful and essential because of how deep the message of the story is expressed through these characters. Mark is a 12 years old boy that battled cancer for years. Unfortunately, cancer has returned and Mark decides to take this opportunity as his last chance to go to the top of Mount Rainer even if it's the last thing he ever does. Therefore, Mark runs away from his parents and best friend, Jessie, for the greatest challenge and adventures. He takes his Dog, Beau, his camera, and a notebook with him. This story can be very meaningful for people that are facing similar challenges as Mark. The audience will understand the hard things he went through and all of the challenges he has overcome. This book can be motivational and inspiring to others and the author did well with conveying that through just characters. I highly recommend people reading this book.

This beautifully written story consumed me in every wonderful way possible. I simply could not put it down and read it in a single sitting. It contained so many life lessons that pertain to us all, regardless of age. I'm reminded that angels walk among us each and every day. They are our neighbors, classmates, taxi drivers, etc. It's also the story of a boy and the most amazing relationship he has with his dog. Truly looking forward to sharing this book with others and would recommend to any and all who are seeking an amazing, inspiring, thought provoking story.

While I felt that the writing was adequate there were several moments where the protagonist, a young, intelligent boy, acted in ways that contradicted what I was led to believe was his basic character. I felt the author erred on the side of moving the story forward rather than story harmony. The book had some philosophical issues that for me made the book of questionable value for children.

So while this book will be of some value to those espousing a more humanist philosophical perspective others might find it too intense or ethically convoluted for younger readers. A better book for me was Okay for Now.

A former elementary student who wasn’t always sure about liking reading told me about this book that he read and liked. I’m not sure if that influenced my rating, but as I read and thought about this child enjoying the story I noticed many good things that made this a good read in both enjoyment and learning. It has an action filled plot told in an addicting pace using haikus, different voices (the main character and his friend), and life affirming themes. And that’s the honest truth.

I LOVED this book from the start! Mark, the protagonist, is a likable kid who is terribly sick, but he has a dream of doing something more. So he takes off and on an adventure of courage, strength, and fun. The writing is very age appropriate (middle school 6-8 graders). Another thing I liked about it, was that it really is aimed towards boys. The plot moves quickly and there were a few places where I wondered what was going to happen. Overall, this is a great middle-school level book for boys who love adventures!

Amazing book. Kept me completely captivated! Had tears running down my face from halfway through the end!!!! Recommended by my sons 6th grade teacher who had read it to her class. My son recommended it too!

My 5th grade students read this book in book club. They LOVED this book!! They rated this book a 5 because it had a lot of detail. They loved how the author wrote different chapters to give different perspectives of all of the characters. They said it was an easy read, did not have any confusing parts, and had plenty of cliff hangers to keep them coming back for more. One of my parents followed along with reading this book with her child and she claimed she was in tears throughout this book, but couldn't get enough!

The Honest Truth is a compelling middle grade reader. I started crying in chapter two and didn't finish until the book ended. The story is told in first person by Mark, a twelve year old boy with cancer who runs away from home when he hears that he needs to start a new course of treatment. The best moments captured are those between Mark and his best friend Jessie.
The plot is simple and there are few characters, but Mark's story is riveting.

The only appealing quality of this kid is his appreciation for a good dog. This book is for depressives only. A cancer stricken boy getting beat up by bullies?

Note: I don't like unnecessary gradual unfolding; guessing about medical conditions, prognoses . . . why not explain it all early?

There's some concern in other reviews about whether or not this is appropriate for the intended age group (middle grade readers). Since I'm not of that age (and have no children in that category), I can't really say whether it's "appropriate" or not. All I can say is this is a wonderful, riveting, and honest book.

According to my 10 year old daughter, she really enjoyed this book. Especially when Mark helped his dog jump over the crevice.

The characters were very interesting and her favorite character was the dog. The plot was easy to understand and wrapped up nicely even though it ended sadly. Great book.

A story about a boy fighting cancer who is determined to fulfill a promise to climb Mt. Rainier. A beautiful story about anger, and the cruelty of the world but also friendship, hope and perseverance.
Great for fourth grade and up.

One of the saddest, most beautiful books that I've read in many days. If you can make it through these pages without crying or remembering your own losses, I shall be surprised. Incredible, and gut wrenching. Well done.

A compelling, quick read. Kids and dogs are a combination that always gets me in the gut and this story packs a wallop. It's heartfelt and heart wrenching and will appeal to so many readers of any age.

Right from page one, I felt connected to Mark, and cheered for his success. He's a wonderfully endearing character with lots of guts and passion. The tough questions of the story were handled beautifully in this very well written middle grade novel. I'd recommend it to anyone!

I thought this book was intriguing because of the detail on the main character. It is an appropriate book for adults and children (probably 11-17.) If you enjoy a good book with emotional content this book will plug in your emotions, not let you put it down, and take you on an adventure.

Extremely uncaring and selfish protagonist in this book. Our " hero" has cancer and wants to climb Mt Rainier, so instead of saying "Hey Dad, it is my dream to climb a mountain like Grandpa did", he sneaks away, worries his mom and dad to death for days, wastes countless police hours searching the wrong cities, and almost kills his pour dog three times. ( street gang fight, drowning, hunger and hypothermia) He makes the dog climb a mountain in a freezing blizzard with little food, no thought for how the dog will make it back to safety. It takes several chapters for the reader to realize what a self centered thoughtless rat this kid is. Two stars only because the beginning was kind of interesting before you realize how self centered he is.

My 5th grade students read this book in book club. They LOVED this book!! They rated this book a 5 because it had a lot of detail. They loved how the author wrote different chapters to give different perspectives of all of the characters. They said it was an easy read, did not have any confusing parts, and had plenty of cliff hangers to keep them coming back for more. One of my parents followed along with reading this book with her child and she claimed she was in tears throughout this book, but couldn't get enough!