The Outside Boy by Jeanine Cummins

So as a way to spice up my already over-active reading goals, I have decided to take Laura Miller's suggestion and enter into a reading challenge for 2011. Since we have been talking about making a trip to Ireland, I chose the Irish Reading Challenge and decided on The Outside Boy: A Novel
as my first read because my cousin Martha had been trying to get me to read this book last summer. What a great novel to begin with. Set in Ireland in 1959, it is the story of 12 year old Christy Hurley's quest to determine the real story of his mother's life. He has been told by his father that his mother died giving birth to him - that they only shared 7 minutes on this earth. The story is sweet and engaging but also very informative as I knew nothing about the Pavee culture. Reading this novel led me to research these nomadic Irish travelers who are largely tinkers and constitute 0.5 percent of Ireland's population today.