I was really excited to read this book, but it didn’t impress me as much as I thought.  It was too slow and simple.  It was written from the point of view of a five-year-old, and even though he did have a big vocabulary, it still felt dumbed down.

A woman, Ma, is kidnapped and is forced to live in an eleven-by-eleven shed for seven years.  She has a son while living there and the story begins on the boy’s, Jack’s, fifth birthday.  The first part of the book is about living in the shed.  They play track, running around the shed, cards, watch TV, read the few books that they have, and clean the shed and their clothes.  The second part is when we see more of their captor, Old Nick.  He brings them Sunday Treats every week, which can be groceries or clothes, and sometimes toys for Jack.  Old Nick hurts Ma in the second part and we begin to see how much she wants to get out.  The third part is my favorite, because it has most of the action of the book.  Jack and Ma come up with a plan to escape and carry it out.  The fourth part starts when they are out of the Room and are sent to live in a clinic.  This is the part when we see how badly Jack has developed.  He has trouble going outside because the wind hurts him and he has to learn how to be away from his Ma.

I did like how Donoghue described all the new things that Jack was experiencing.  The simplest things that we all take for granted are seen as the best treasures in the world to Jack because he had so little in the Room.  In today’s world I think we could all learn a little bit from Jack about not wasting everything we have and only taking what we need instead of everything we want.