The Midnight Children by Dan Gemeinhart

Wondrous, glorious, magnificent. Three words that mean the same thing, but would all perfectly describe The Midnight Children by Dan Gemeinhart. The novel is about a boy named Ravani, or Rav, Foster. Rav lives in the small town of Slaughterville, aptly named for its infamous slaughterhouse, the town’s main source of income. Most of the time, it seems that Rav is also in a slaughterhouse being bullied constantly by Donnie Carter. He’s bullied for the birdhouses that he builds, bullied for not having any friends, and bullied just because Donnie feels like it. However, when a group of seven children move into the house across the street, everything begins to change for Ravani Foster and the town of Slaughterville.

When Ravani sees the children step out of the truck in front of the house, he immediately notices some things. There are no adults and the kids are all very, very, lonely. He sees their expressions, their eyes, and mouths, and while realizing that they’re lonely, he understands that he might just be even more lonely than them.

When Rav first meets them, they say nothing about why they moved to Slaughterville or even their names. However, Rav begins to get to know the loneliest one of them all. A girl about Rav’s age named Virginia and Virginia eventually (after really getting to trust Ravani) tells him their secret, that they’re running from a hunter, the Hunter, a man who hunts people, a man that is hunting them.

I really loved this novel because of the way Gemeinhart really incorporated feeling into this book. The book was layered with sadness and with little bits of funny poking through. It is certainly one of the best novels I have read in a long time (with all the things your teacher would say would make a great book and more!), It isn’t quite my favorite, but the way Gemeinhart really makes the feelings come through makes it close to being the best.