Theodore Boone: The Activist by John GrishamMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
John Grisham is one of my favorite authors. The moment I started reading The Pelican Brief, I became hooked to his books. I enjoy the fact that while reading wonderful fiction, I get to learn about the law. It is one of the things that I love about reading -- I get to learn something. And with Grisham, I get to learn a lot.
Theodore Boone: The Activist is John Grisham's latest book and is the fourth book of the Theodore Boone series. The series is all about Theo who is the only child of two lawyers. His father is an estate lawyer and his mother is a divorce lawyer. Theo loves the law and plans to be a famous trial lawyer some day. He loves the law so much that he has his own small "law office" within his parents' offices. He gives advice and helps out friends as much as he can.
In this fourth book of the series, Theo is faced with a problem that has something to do with budgets. He is very sad to learn that budget cuts are forcing his school to make certain changes. But, as there are cutbacks on one hand, the town council is considering voting on a project that will cost $200 million dollars. To make things much more worrisome, Theo's friend Hardie asks him whether the government can simply take the land that has been in his family for almost a century just to build something.
As he and his friends are spending some time fishing on the property that Hardie's family calls their own, his dog Judge gets brutally attacked by men who claim to be surveyors. They even shoved one of the boys and was rough with Theo himself. Judge is lucky to be alive and Theo's parents take the men to Animal Court for cruelty.
After the case in Animal Court, Theo and Judge make it into the town papers. His "fame" makes him attractive to people who are looking for ways to convince the town's council that the project they are pushing for is not good for the community. Thus, Theo becomes an activist.
Theo has to explain about eminent domain and I have to admit that the explanation is clear and easy to understand especially for young children. The concept of acting on something that kids passionately care about is well presented.
However, the story starts out rather slowly -- maybe a tad too slow. Once the story picks-up though, it becomes rather exciting. If the book wasn't so slow in the beginning, I would have given it more stars.
View all my reviews
