Me and Marvin Gardens

Me and Marvin Gardens
By Amy Sarig King
Arthur A. Levine, 2017. Fiction. 243 p.
Obe Devlin lives on the land his parents and grandparents lived on. He feels connected to the land, and goes out to the creek every day to pick up trash and keep things nice. As a new housing development grows on what used to be Devlin land, Obe mourns and tries desperately to hold on to everything he has lost. Then one day he finds an amazing animal near the new subdivision. It is unlike anything he or anyone else has ever seen before. He instinctively feels that he must protect it, but as he learns more about the creature, he realizes that protecting it is going to be harder than he could have imagined.

This book defies categorization. Is it realistic fiction, science fiction, fantasy? It is certainly a relationship book. Obe's relationships with his old friend who has become his enemy, his new friend, the strange animal, and the land itself, are at the heart of this book. This is a great choice for kids who liked Hoot by Hiaasen or Fuzzy Mud by Sachar.

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