A year and a half later, I finished it! Started it on the island, but left it there. Bought another copy at the lil' book store in AR. Then put it in storage, dug it out again.I throughly enjoyed it. All throughout I loved reading about these characters. The fact it took me so long to read it wasn't a reflection on the book.Only when I got to the end did I realize it was a book about nothing. It was a girls summer, and memories, but it ended with no resolution. Just a story that stops. I liked it--but I didn't care for the ending. This has been true to the two books I have read lately.A good read, but not a book that changes your life.**After reading other reviews, I do remember how much the book made me laugh in the earlier segments. It also seems to resound more with readers who experienced the polio epidemic. One reader said it didn't stick with her once she closed the back cover. I agree with that statement. However, I found out it is a trilogy, so I may have to read the others. Not because I am so enthralled, but because I am a curious person. Now that I know there are two more books, it seems incomplete. I don't like not finishing a book, and now it seems that way, with two more floating around.**
I'll admit, what originally attracted me to this book was the title. As a kid, I was a huge Roy Rogers/Trigger fan! I think I may have even written a fan letter or two! In many ways the stories main character, Tabitha aka Tab, reminded me of myself, a tomboy who just didn't quite fit in. My Last Days As Roy Rogers was a sweet coming of age story set in Alabama during the early 1950's Polio Epidemic. With the pool and movie theater closed for fear of contracting Polio, Tomboy Tab and her BFF Maudie are off on one hilarious adventure after another from building "Fort Polio" a little too close to Mr. Jake, the backwoods bootlegger, property to catching the biggest catfish.The ending is quite sad as 2 completely different female characters leave town for very different reasons. Maudie has contracted Polio and Mrs. Grace Poovey, the town matriarch, leaves town suddenly surrounded by scandal and Tab's life will never be the same.
Do You like book My Last Days As Roy Rogers (2000)?
Set in the south, this story is an enjoyable peek into a simpler time of life. With more freedom to roam than today's child, ten year-old Tabitha manages to stay out of trouble . . . until her new friend Maudie May expands her horizons. The book is a delightful read, filled with lots of little details indicative of the 1950's. Even though you're transported back to a time when everyone worried about contracting polio, you still get to experience the naiveté of growing up in one of the most popular eras in U.S. history.
—Sheila Hansberger
As a child of the 50's, I remember the polio epidemic and 2 friend who contracted it. I felt the pervasive fear again as I read the book. I found the character development wonderful, especially that of Tab and Maudie, who was a leader in her own right, but stifled by the prejudice and segregation of the time in Alabama. Although I laughed at many points in the book, the end was tragic with 2 females, one a white older woman and the other an African-American girl leaving town each under different, but equally tragic circumstances. I recommend this book and the author's next book "The Summer We Got Saved", which continues the story.
—Ginny
Read this one in a solid day. I think the author was seeking for her inner "To Kill a Mockingbird," but instead turned out a book that felt like the written sequel to the movie "The Sandlot." It was based on a good idea, telling the story of fear that pervaded America in the pre-Polio vaccine era, and how that fear affected the lives of children and parents of the day. Unfortunately, the characters were never really developed in such a way that made the reader care about them. The tension that was to be felt, the town drama and society secrets, well...they just didn't pan out to be much. And where Harper Lee's classic set in Alabama was had me howling with laughter at times, I only managed a big smile once or twice in a book that had much potential for humor. Very disappointing.
—Darla
