Remembering the Good Times

Reader reviewed by Aaron

When I was reading the book Remembering the Good Times I thought the book was an alright book. The reason I say it was an alright book and not bad or good is because the book was good but it isnt my favorite type of books to read. My favorite type of books is Sport books, adventure, and mystery. The book was kind of a mix of types of books it seems like. It seemed like it was an adventure book and a mystery book. The reason I think that is because it is kind of boring for the most of the book until Skeeter and buck get into a fight or when Skeeter gets beat up. The reason I think it is part mystery is because toward the end when Trav kills himself it seems like Kate and Buck should have figured it out that he was giving them his old stuff because he wouldnt be needing them anymore because he wont be alive anymore. One of the reason I didnt like the book is because they give much of a back ground on a character so it seemed like you couldnt feel like you were in the book because you didnt know the characters very well. Another reason I didnt like the book very much was because they didnt have very many events that were pretty major other then when Skeeter beats up Buck over a hard hat and when Skeeter gets beat up and when Trav commits suicide.

Reader reviewed by Alycia K

Remembering the Good Times
Remembering the Good Times starts out telling us that Buck and Kate meet and hung out for a summer while hes at his dads. Then his mom says that there moving to Cleveland and Buck doesnt want to go so he stays with his dad. He goes to school in the town of Slocum. And he and Kate and Travis have home room together, just admitting it now if it wasnt for the rude styling of Skeeter they would have never became friends (the three of them). They all hang out and become real close to one another. They start high school together and they make it through freshman orientation and they think they could make it through everything. A few bumps in the road they stay close. And as the year gets going more things change. Trav doesnt think hes being challenged enough and that the classes other then advanced are just a waste of his time. As the year goes on they start going the other way and not as close as they used to be. Late summer almost sophomore school time a very tragic thing happens in their lives. Trav kills himself. This was a very devastating time in Kate and Bucks lives especially with the hole school thinking they were best friends with him but really werent...this is truly hard to go through, I have been trough it a lot before. I did like this book but I dint at the same time. I did because it was an interesting topic to right about but then again its a very touchy topic. Other then being a little boring it was almost really good.

Reader reviewed by Maddie S

Remembering the Good Times was an o.k. book, I probably wouldnt have picked it myself but it was pretty good. I didnt really understand the beginning because it was very long and confusing. I felt the author took to long to explain things in the book. This book did have a good lesson though, it taught me that you never can assume that some ones life is going good, it could be crazy and no one would ever know. I think that Trav killing himself was a little dramatic for his situation and that if maybe his problem was more serious it would have made a lot more sense for him to kill himself. Also I did not understand why Skeeter was in this book, I know he was the bully but really he didnt have any importance to this book. Remembering the Good Times was very confusing in parts some examples are Buck going to Cleveland to see his mom I really didnt see why the other made him to there. Another reason is Kates mom, Janis and Bucks dad going to the house warming party at Travs home was a little weird because that really was never brought up again so I didnt understand why the author put it in the book. But I also enjoyed this book towards the end my favorite chapters were, chapters 15 and springtime, I liked these because Kate and Buck seemed happier about the situation and how they could talk about Trav and understand why it happened the way it did. I thought it was very nice that Kate and Buck remembered Travs poem he wrote. I loved that the could remember the good times and be happy.

Reader reviewed by Taylor S

Remembering the Good Times Critique

I liked and disliked the book Remembering the Good Times because it reminds me of me and my friends and how things can turn around so quickly. But I didnt like the part were Tray hung himself. I think he should have died in a different like in a car accident or someone else shot him. A good part of the book that I liked and was interested in is how jealous Buck was between Kate and Trav. I think they should have gone out because then buck might have actually stayed in football. He also might have been as popular as Kate and Trav were.
I think Polly was a really interesting person because not many people in the world are quite like her. I liked her because shes old, loves playing games, is funny and very sarcastic, and she is pretty bossy and mean. I also extremely liked the character Tray because he is really smart but is so depressed because he thinks hes is not smart enough, and that is not like most people. When he dies in the story its like the climax of the story and it was something that really caught my attention. But the only reason I liked and dislike about that is everyone like him and everyone said that they knew him when they didnt and that just not right.
So that is the explanation for why I liked and disliked the book Remembering the Good Times

Reader reviewed by Domanic H


We read Remembering the Good Times a book about someone who takes their own life because they had a problem that they couldnt figure it out. I thought this book would be boring and it kind of was until the part where Trav dies. The story starts out telling how Kate, Buck, and Trav meet when Skeeter blew up in class by yelling at Mrs. Slater and Trav just goes up to Skeeter and puts his hands on his and Skeeter calmed down. After school they would always hang out unless someone had to do something and then the others hung out. After school and sometimes on weekends they would go to Kates house and play card games with Polly, who is Kates aunt the third oldest person in Slocum.
When the dance came Polly helped Kate, Buck, and Trav find costumes for the dance. After the dance, Kate does up to Skeeter and they go for a walk and then a car stops and someone gets out and starts beating Skeeter up. Kate says she had a plan to get back at Skeeter by telling Mr. Slater how Skeeter is sexually abusing his wife. Skeeter never came back to Slocum school. Later on in the book, some people rob the gas station where Buck works and someone ends up killing Scotty. Trav gets in trouble for steeling toys and gets sent to his cousins farm for the summer and when he gets back he looks buff. Now to get to the part where Trav commits suicide. In school, Kate and Buck get told they both need to go to Kates house fast, when they got there they where told Trav committed suicide in the orchard. That is what I think of the book Remembering the Good Times.

Reader reviewed by Tyler J

In our language class, we read the book Remembering the Good Times by Richard Peck. At first before we started reading the book, I thought that maybe it was going to be about adult friends discussing their childhoods. After we started reading the book, I was strongly mistaken. It had nothing to do with what I had originally thought. The book was pretty good, but it did not spark my interest. Remembering the Good Times did not have any major or minor events that happened to catch my attention. Also, the book was almost always too serious, and never had any exciting events take place in it. Another reason why I think that this book didnt get my attention is because of the conclusion. The major conflict, the main character committing suicide, comes too late in the story. It makes the book come to a sudden end. This book would not be good for you if you are looking for one with exciting events or a good, strong conclusion. However, this book does deal with the practical event of teen suicide. It does also capture the unique qualities of all of the characters, qualities that almost all teens could relate to. This book also shows that no matter how different their personalities and backgrounds may have been, they all got along extremely well with each other. This book reminds the reader that nothing lasts forever, and that they should appreciate all of the things that they have in their life.

Reader reviewed by Jessica E

As I read the book I thought it was a very good book for kids our age. I think that because it involves events that could, or does happen in our lives. One of the things I really liked about the book was he didnt just commit suicide for know reason, or like he didnt think anyone would care. He did it because he was much stressed with school, and being the very best he could possible be. And thats how I think a lot of the teenage suicides happen for that reason. Another reason was, because its about how best friends can make mistakes sometimes, and still be best friends forever. One more reason I really liked this book was because, it had a point about bulling, and how Skeeter did a lot of bulling, and being mean to others too. At our school we have really big poleis over bulling. So thats why I liked that part of the book so much. I recommend this book to kids my age, ages thirteen to eighteen, and the reason for that is, because kids around those ages attend to do commit suicide and they other things they do in the book. So those are just a few ways how Remembering the Good Times is good. In conclusion, overall the book has its ups and downs but its a great book to read.

Reader reviewed by Kara N.

I believe that the book Remembering the Good Times is a great book. It is a good book because it teaches you some things that are happening in our teens lives. The biggest example in this book was suicide. One of the main characters, Travis, commits suicide. There is a few other examples like teens parents getting divorced. This is a very common thing in this generation. Another thing that is happening in this generation, are teens getting into relationships.
Another reason that I believe that Remembering the Good Times is a good book is because it is a short and very easy book to read. A lot of the time we teenagers do not like to have to read a lot for homework. So if it is a short and easy book they will enjoy the book a little more.
Another reason that I believe that Remembering the Good Times is a good book is because it is very easy to get lost in the book. For example the book uses a lot of descriptive words to help the reader to get a mental picture of what is going on in the book. Like when the author describes Pollys bedroom in the book he describe every little thing in her room. My favorite thing that he described in the book of her room was the dresser. He said that it had clocks on it and funeral fans stuck in the mirror.
So there are a few reasons why I thought Remembering the Good Times, By Richard Peck was a great book.

Reader reviewed by Josh.I

Remembering the Good Times
The book Remembering the Good Times is overall a boring book, but it also has depressing parts too. Like when Trav hangs himself, or when Buck has to go spend the summer with his mom half way across the country and leave his friends. The other parts in the book I feel are not really thing that make up a thrilling book. If you like thrilling story that is, and I do I like action material. This book does not really have any action to it. It is more a book for people how like non-action stories.

The books title remembering the good times makes you think the story is going to be a bunch of older people talking about their childhood. Instead of a few young people and one old person are not remembering any good times. They are no living real good times either. I mean Buck lives in a trailer. Kate has no dad and her mom is always out partying till around midnight like every night. So she has to live with her great aunt Polly who is old I mean the 3rd oldest person in their town. One the other hand Trav lives with both parents and has a descent home. He also gets good grades. But he is always worrying about other countries disputes and war and what not.

The only part that I thought was good was when Trav hung him self. It was suspenseful and action filled. Thats what I look for in a story. And if a book only has one good point like that then it is not a very good story.

Reader reviewed by Huxley K

Remembering the Good Times

Remembering the good times is a book about these three kids who are friends. Personally I did not like the book remembering the good times. I dont know why I dont like the book but I guess it is because all of the dying. Like Travis had a good life and he just tack it away. Some of the good things were his friends a good family he was in a lot of advanced classes. Then he went and killed himself in the orchard by hanging himself in one of the trees.

Another reason is Skeeter the bully went and took bucks dad hard hat from there yard. And he was being mean to a new teacher Mrs. Slater by talking back to he rand taking his enormous arm and knocking all the stuff of her desk. Then at the homecoming dance Skeeter was smoking a cigarette right at school. Kate had called Mr. Slater and mad a plan to beat Skeeter up after the dance. So Kate went and bribed him to come with them and a little way down the road a car pulled up and Mr. Slater jumped out and stated to beat up Skeeter and when he was done he asked the three of them if they needed a ride home like nothing happened. Lastly at a gas station a robber broke in and shot Scotty and he died at the hospital later on. So that is why I did not like the book.