Remembering the Good Times

Reader reviewed by Dylan Tunheim

Dylan Tunheim

I thought remembering the good times was the worst book.i have ever read it was slow paced and there was no story line to it I thought travis would die soon in the book so that everybody would learn a lesson. But no because he had to die at the end travis was the worst character because he acted like an adult all the time there wasnt time to be a kid like everybody else. I didnt care for the way the characters acted because they acted like the 50s that time period not the 2000s if they would have made this story a little more fast paced they would have made a pretty good but there attempt was a total failure nobody wants to read about a old lady in solcum like polly. I think they should have made travis come from a bad family and that would be better than what they have now for travis. And they should of made them a little bit older at the beginning of the story that would have made it better but in the long run a suicide is killing yourself because of self pain on the inside or it can be on the outside or it can just be coming from a bad family and not getting enough attention. Travis was the guy everyone counted on and he didnt want to be that person he didnt like being in regular classes because he felt that he was wasting his talents. I would not recommend having someone read RTGT because it is not a story for school.

Reader reviewed by Kaia H.

To be honest, I definitely hated the book. At some parts, I felt like I had to low of a comprehension level to understand it. And at other parts, I felt like they thought I was stupid. The author also needed to be a lot more descriptive. The words were dull and boring. I see how if the author used too many descriptive words it would be difficult to read, but there were hardly any. I bet the book would have gotten a better review if he (the author) would have only taken five more minutes to change the word cool to awesome. Another point I have is that the book didnt really interest me. I like mystery and humor books, not dull books about kids who sit around and play cards. Maybe people who have no friends, sit in a desk all day, and get straight As might like this book, but I strongly dislike it. Although, I believe that my grandma might actually like this one. This book just is not for me. I mean, some of the parts in the book were sad and almost made me cry, but there were other parts that I just thought were stupid. Example: Every day Trav. And I would head over to Kates house to play cards. What is the point of that? Nothing ever happened when they were playing cards. It made no sense to write that. I didnt tell you that after that sentence there was a heck of a lot of other words that described what games they played and who won them. I dont really care about that, because it is not like they ended going to the big league. That book is just kind of an oldie. I guess that I will just repeat myself, I hated it!

Reader reviewed by frankie

In Remembering the Good Times, you start at Bucks dads house because his parents are divorced and he lives with his mom on week days and with his father on week ends. When he goes to stay with his dad trailer, he meets a girl in an orchard and her name is Kate. She is a tom girl, one of the main characters, Buck and Kate and the main characters name is Buck and later in the book they become really good friends Kate lives with her mom and her grandma in a old farm house buck dad lives in a trailer in the back of a gas station called the sonoco and then he moves in with his dad for good and his mom marries a man named Mr. Wonderlick and they move to Atlanta and the summer after a kid named Trav moves to Bucks town he goes to live with his mom and step dad in Atlanta and then he comes back when it is time to go to school. Buck finds out that Trav and Kate have been hanging out together a lot while he was gone.

Reader reviewed by eli p

In Remembering the Good Times, by Richard Peck, it seemed to have a lot of ups and downs in my opinion upon reading the book. By ups and downs I mean that theyre were a lot of good and bad times. Also in Remembering the Good Times, there seemed to be four different good life features presented, making friends, keeping friends, helping friends and also unfortunately, losing friends. An example of making friends was when Buck and Kate first me each other in the beginning of the book. A really touching part of the story for me is when we figure out that Kate, Buck, and Trav are all considered outcasts by society and they all know it but they also know that they dont need anything but friendship to get by in life. That is pretty much the main theme of the book that really intrigued me and made me keep on reading it.

A few more points in the story have to do with helping your friends and that is easily recognized in this book by seeing how Buck helps Kate and Kate helps Trav and all the way around to everybody helping everybody. This just goes to show that they wont be knocked around by the average stereotypes of society. One last point I would like to show you in the story is dealing with losing friends. I wont spoil it for you but let me tell you what all this means. It is that this story touches on a very very touchy subject, suicide, and let me tell you from experience, it is not easy dealing with a suicide in real life and in this story it shows that suicide does hurt the people that are left behind and that it is a good reason to like this book. It puts real life experiences into a fictional story.

Reader reviewed by Miranda

Miranda Schwanke
Period
11/18/08

In this book Remembering the Good Times, I have an opinion on many things. But over all I would have to say that Remembering the Good Times is an amazing book.
Remembering the Good Times helps me remember my good and some what bad times, and how a death of a loved one in my family changed my life. It also opened my eyes to how easy it is to miss the warning signs of a loved one about to take his or hers own life.
This book also showed me that we may not know our friends or even our own family as they sink lower into depression. And even how there are people out there who are willing to do anything to keep there loved ones safe. Just like on page 118 paragraph 5
Even when Trav died made me think of all the people out there that are dong or thinking about doing the same thing! Plus when Kate showed buck the peach garden I started thinking about some special place where I would go just to be alone sometimes.
Anyway reading Remembering the Good Times has the truth on just about some of the most important things in life. Even when I was done reading Remembering the Good Times I was still asking myself, do I really know my best friend or any of my fiends for that matter? How about my family do I really know anything about how a family member feels as well as I think I know them? It all goes to show that someone we know and love may be the next one to take their own life.

Reader reviewed by Lisa K

Remembering the Good Times by Richard Peck was an interesting book but held the truths for people in the real world. This story told about kids who had to face challenges through life, such as bullies, different living conditions, and knowing you dont always know what your friends are going through.

In the book, Buck, Kate, and Trav meet in each other in the eighth grade and get to know each other in the eighth grade. Trav, now is a very wealthy, worried, brilliant young man that is very stressed with things happening in the world, mainly in Middle America.

As the trio comes close together, they begin to try to stay close together even more than before though, Buck goes away the summer after eighth grade and comes back to find a lot of change, which he doesnt like. He finds that he, himself has changed over that times as well and tells Kate, that they should promise not to change.

Later, Trav and Kate become kind of popular as they become more active through the school. Trave becomes in more electives, Buck begins a job outside of school and Kate trys out for a play with a poem Trav wrote,
The days of winter enter in
The darkness nibbles at the days,
The heavy clouds pull down the sky,
The deep snowfall strays and grays.

Too long to wait for springtime now
Here in this cold and darkening room,
Only time for remembering
The pear trees in bloom.

After that Trav starts throwing signs of distress, for example, Trav and Buck were watching Kate rehearsing and Buck says something like, When shes famous, we can say we knew her first. Later he gives some of his possessions away like a lilly to Polly, a bear to Kate, and a calculator to Buck.

Then when Buck and Kate go to school Trav hangs himself in the orchards and Buck and Kate are in some what of a schock and dont believe it.

The school board has a program for the community about Trav and Kate and Buck grieve it out during that time knowing how Trave would never come back again.

Those are some of the main reasons why Remembering the Good Times is an interesting book.

Reader reviewed by Lisa

Remembering the Good Times by Richard Peck was an interesting book but held the truths for people in the real world. This story told about kids who had to face challenges through life, such as bullies, different living conditions, and knowing you dont always know what your friends are going through.

In the book, Buck, Kate, and Trav meet in each other in the eighth grade and get to know each other in the eighth grade. Trav, now is a very wealthy, worried, brilliant young man that is very stressed with things happening in the world, mainly in Middle America.

As the trio comes close together, they begin to try to stay close together even more than before though, Buck goes away the summer after eighth grade and comes back to find a lot of change, which he doesnt like. He finds that he, himself has changed over that times as well and tells Kate, that they should promise not to change.

Later, Trav and Kate become kind of popular as they become more active through the school. Trave becomes in more electives, Buck begins a job outside of school and Kate trys out for a play with a poem Trav wrote,
The days of winter enter in
The darkness nibbles at the days,
The heavy clouds pull down the sky,
The deep snowfall strays and grays.

Too long to wait for springtime now
Here in this cold and darkening room,
Only time for remembering
The pear trees in bloom.

After that Trav starts throwing signs of distress, for example, Trav and Buck were watching Kate rehearsing and Buck says something like, When shes famous, we can say we knew her first. Later he gives some of his possessions away like a lilly to Polly, a bear to Kate, and a calculator to Buck.

Then when Buck and Kate go to school Trav hangs himself in the orchards and Buck and Kate are in some what of a schock and dont believe it.

The school board has a program for the community about Trav and Kate and Buck grieve it out during that time knowing how Trave would never come back again.

Those are some of the main reasons why Remembering the Good Times is an interesting book.

Reader reviewed by Austin

I think the book Remembering the good times is a really pointless book. I think some pages were pointless because some didnt make any sense. An example is Travis killed himself because he thought his teacher and his parents were not challenging him enough. In chapter 14 and 15. Travis is a character in the book.

There are some other characters I want to introduce to you so here they are. Buck, Kate, Travis, Bucks dad, Kates mom, Sketer, and Fred. Buck is the most important in the book. And also Bucks the one who tells this story.

Kate is a really nice girl who meets Buck a boulevard and they become best friend except Travis. Skater is really smart lid but he thinks he can beat up Buck but Buck is way bigger and stronger. Skater only ways 180 pounds and 5 feet something with brown hair.

Buck lives with both of his parents and he went to live with his mom in the summer in California and Travis was hanging out with Kate all summer long. So Kate and Travis liked each other. Travis and Buck were really good friends but when they were hanging out with Kate they get in a big fight at his party. They go over to Pollys house and try on some Halloween costumes. So they go in her house and try on clothes for a big Halloween party and a big bomb fire. Kate has this big old pink gown and Travis tries on this brown suite with this thing around his solder.

Reader reviewed by Ashlynne Krueger

I enjoyed Remembering The Good Times because I love stories that have strong friendships and drama. In this story Buck and Kate and Travis had great connection. Theyve showed me that a healthy friendship lasts along time. Some examples of their closeness is when Travis was stuck in Jail he wasted his one phone call to contact his best friend, Buck. Then Buck came immediately, no questions asked. Another time would be when Kate tried out for the play, she needed Buck there with her. Finally when she did get the part, Buck, Travis, and Polly helped her prepare even when they already knew she was ready.
I personally think that Kate and Buck should have dated in the story. Even though Kate seemed to be attached to Travis like they were meant to be together. Buck has always had certain feelings for Kate since the second time they talked. When Buck learned that Kate and Travis had a close relationship over the summer while he was away in Cleveland with his mom and step-dad, he became a little jealous.
Some of the things I learned from reading this book is sometimes you dont know your friends as well as you thought. Kate and Buck knew that something was wrong with Travis because of the way he acted and sometimes thought of things in a weird way. Another thing I picked up from this book was try at what you want in life and appreciate life. As an example for the part of never giving up would be when Kate wanted to be in the play so badly that she tried her best and never gave up. My other thing I said I learned was appreciating what you have and dont it waste it or take it for granted that way Travis did.

Reader reviewed by skye

RTGT wasnt that very interesting to me, probably because I dont have much interest in non-fiction books. I cant say that there were no fairly incredible parts, I had pictured Pollys room quite easily and I was able to picture Kate in the used-to-be-pink dress. Polly was the one who had interested me the most, she isnt like most grandmothers I know or Ive seen in books. Kate had also interested me since she wasnt like all preppy, and she is such a loyal friend to Buck and Travis! Buck was actually seriously boring to me, and was such a downer. Trav was worried mostly about everything and it got quite annoying! I mean, I can understand to be scared that the world will come to and end, but its probably the end of the world when its a way later year. In the book, when Kates mom came to that party with all that make-up on her& I honestly pictured a clown wearing a tight, gut-sucking dress. Oh, and not to mention Bucks dad& I pictured him in a brown suit, with his stomach hanging out. I must admit, there were few emotional moments with crying. When Buck decided to live with his father in Slocum, I pictured his mother sobbing her eyes out, with like huge globs of mascara running down her face, and that she was almost dead from not enough air. Another sad part I can think of is when Scotty was laying in the hospital bed, with the meter, Irene next to him crying her eyes out, and Scotty was dead cold. So honestly, this actually wasnt that bad of a book, but it still wasnt that interesting to me.