Jimmy has always been a little special.  As a baby he was not developing as quickly as he should and after an incident where he was left in the tub and almost drowned while his mother took a phone call, he has a fear of water to boot.

Now at fourteen Jimmy lives with his dad and step mom who both love him dearly.  He spends time with his Grandparents where his grandpa challenges him to do things he never thought he could like climbing a pole with a safety harness in the back yard, much to Jimmy’s delight and his Grandmother and Step mom’s fury.

Jimmy knows he is different, how could he not when his cousin constantly calls him retard, and kids at school tease him…. but Jimmy is smarter than they all realize, able to do things like work in his dads office, and even testifying in court.

It is really hard to explain this audio.  On one hand, I loved this story.  The sweet southern narration of the author Robert Whitlow himself was wonderful.  Jimmy’s story of moving beyond what was expected of him time and again it is heart warming.  Jimmy’s heart is so pure and he always wants to do whats right, including being saved in church, and wanting the same for his Grandpa – so bad that he makes deals with Grandpa to get him to go to church.

Jimmy also has a knack of seeing things he calls “watchers” Angel like people who show up in different situations, some times to help, some times to observe…. Jimmy takes great comfort in them but tells only a few people he trusts about them. I wish they would have developed this part of the read more as while they touch on the watchers a little bit, but  they are sprinkled through most of the book so maybe that is all the author wanted us to have…. not a real idea about them but a glimpse.

Really my only complaint is that as the audio went on it seemed like it was crisis after crisis and that took away a bit of the :real” feel for me.  The audio is 4 hours and 45 minutes and in that time there are five major plots within the story that Jimmy has to go through.  After so much in such a short audio it felt to be too much.

If you can overlook that, I would HIGHLY recommend this in book format or audio.  The story really was good, and in the end… well, I can’t imagine you can walk away without taking a little piece of Jimmy with you.

Amazon Rating

The 2011 WHERE Are You Reading map has been updated to include Jimmy

I purchased this audio from audible.com