Coming-of-age novels mostly follow the same outline — childhood wonder crashes into harsh reality — and Carrie Brown's “The Rope Walk” (2007) is no exception. Just the same, the novel is both original and exceptional. That it is not more widely read is a shame.

Alice, who lives with her widowed father, Archie, and much older brothers, celebrates her 10th birthday as the novel opens. And so begins the most wonderful summer of her life, and yet also the cruelest.

On that day, Theo, a mixed-race boy of about her age, comes to live with her temporarily. His mother is experiencing extreme depression and his grandmother has been hospitalized. Archie agrees to let the boy stay with them for a few weeks. He is like the best birthday gift ever.

Theo turns out to be a creative, game-for-anything child who brings a tool box with him, but very few clothes. The summer days become one adventure after another. "He was the kind of boy she didn't think she would get tired of," Brown writes.

Nearby lives Kenneth, a famous artist in declining health. Alice is asked to read to him each day, and Kenneth chooses “The Journals of Lewis and Clark,” a book that feeds Theo's thirst for adventure as he listens along with the old man.

As a secret gift for Kenneth, the children decide to build a rope walk through the nearby forest so that the old man will be able to experience nature on his own and find his way back home again. Their naive kindness leads to tragedy.

I don't know if “The Journals of Lewis and Clark” is a great book for reading out loud, but I'm sure “The Rope Walk” would be. Many passages in the story are utterly beautiful, and I discovered myself reading them aloud.

Like “Lamb in Love,” another Carrie Brown novel, “The Rope Walk” is a gem that deserves a comeback in bookstores. ( )

Book on CD narrated by Elaina Erica Davis.

This coming-of-age novel opens on Memorial Day. Alice McCauley is the youngest child, having five older brothers who dote on and protect her. Her father is a Shakespeare scholar at the local college; her mother died when Alice was a baby. On the morning of her tenth birthday, she senses that her world is about the change. At her party Alice meets two people unlike any she’s known to date. Theo is the bi-racial, New York City kid who has come to this small Vermont town to spend the summer with his grandparents. Kenneth also hails from New York, where he has worked as a renowned set designer and artist in the city; suffering from AIDS he has come home to live with his sister. Over the summer the three will form a lasting bond, and Alice will begin to leave childhood behind.

The novel has a somewhat slow pace, but it brought back many fond memories of the idyllic summers of youth. Long days spent doing “nothing” and “everything.” Exploring the endless wonders of our environment, making friends, learning new skills, gaining confidence in our abilities to handle adversity, and also coming to terms with loss.

One of the difficulties with choosing a child narrator, however, is that the adult reader will clearly see certain plot elements coming long before the innocent (or perhaps less-experienced) child. Still, I thought Brown did a good job of revealing the plot elements, and the changing relationships.

Elaina Erica Davis does a reasonably good job performing the audio. She makes me believe it is narrated by a 10-year-old. I wasn’t a fan of Kenneth’s voice and didn’t understand why one of Alice’s older brothers had a British accent. But those were minor. I loved Alice and Theo as Davis portrayed them. ( )

The Rope Walk is a beautiful coming of age story. At ten, Alice doesn't yet know what she doesn't know about the world. In The Rope Walk the reader is taken through this journey with Alice and it brings to mind all the great things about being a kid. ( )

The Rope Walk is a tremendous novel. Carrie Brown develops her characters well and provides the perfect amount of depth to plot. Her language is descriptive without being flowery.

Through Alice, a ten-year old girl, and Theo, the grandson of the her family's friends, Brown tackles the tough topics of AIDS and racism. The children are aware of, but do not understand, the biases of the adults around them. They approach situations directly, yet innocently.

Brown balances darkness with hope and innocence. ( )

This is the All Iowa Reads book for the year, so my book club is reading it for August. It is a beautifully written coming-of-age story. The book begins on Alice's tenth birthday. Alice's mother passed away when she was young, so Alice has been raised in Grange, a small New England town, by her father Archie and five older brothers. She has been loved and sheltered. But on her tenth birthday she meets two people who will change her life, making her aware of the challenges and dangers that are present in the world. Theo is a boy about Alice's age whose grandparents live in Grange. He has come to stay with them because his parents are having marital trouble and his mother is depressed. When Theo's grandmother suffers a stroke, Theo comes to live with Alice and her family. Together, they befriend Kenneth, an older gentleman who has AIDS and has come back to Grange to be cared for by his sister. They read to him and eventually build him a rope walk to help him walk by himself through the woods.

Although the book is filled with sadness and tragedy, more than a ten-year-old should have to deal with, Brown also shows us how Alice comes to deal with these challenges. We come to the understanding that life is not idyllic and we can never completely shelter those we love, but support and friendship come from a number of sources and help us through the hard times. Sometimes we all need a rope walk to hold onto as we navigate the challenges that life throws at us.