When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin

This is a story about a man hiding from his past and a little girl with an uncertain future.

Reese lives a quiet life alone in his home on a Georgia river, with his only neighbor being his friend and brother-in-law Charlie. Reese spends his days quietly repairing and rebuilding antique boats, and only goes into town when he needs to get parts, supplies or food.

One day when Reese goes to town, he sees a little girl in a yellow sundress selling lemonade and it seems that everyone who passes by buys a glass of lemonade from her and gives her a lot of money in payment, giving her $5, $10 or even $20 for a glass. Reese goes and buys a glass from her, and he notices that she has a huge scar down her chest. While quickly drinking his lemonade, Reese learns that the little girl's name is Annie and that she is selling lemonade as a way to earn money for a heart transplant. Annie lost her parents and is living with her aunt CiCi.

Suddenly a breeze blows over the styrofoam cup holding Annie's money, and she runs into the street trying to catch it. At that moment, a rickety old bread truck comes flying around the corner and hits Annie. Reese runs to help her, and in the process, meets her aunt CiCi.

The rest of the book jumps between Reese's present life, with his growing relationship with Annie and CiCi, his childhood and his "big secret"--the story of his wife Emma and how he felt he failed her and caused her death.

In the end of the book, it is revealed that Reese is actually DR. Jonathan "Reese" Mitchell, one of the best heart surgeons in the country, and he is trying to run away from his guilt over his wife's death. It takes a tragedy and Annie's close brush with death to bring Reese back out of hiding and into once again saving lives through his role as a heart surgeon.

Written by andrew Brandt

This book was rather hard to follow at first. The story jumps around to different times in Reese's life, but after the reader gets used to it, the jumping around helps build the tension in the story. The book starts with Reese hiding who he really is and trying to run away from memories, only to have the reader drawn back into the memories to explain why Reese is hiding. This style also builds suspense as the reader gets caught up in both Reese's life and his struggles.

The tension continues to build from the first page, and continues right to the end. As Reese is drawn deeper into Annie's life, he needs to make some big decisions. In the last two chapters the story reaches the crisis and is resolved, but does not give up it's "secret" until the last couple of pages.

The story draws the reader in and keeps the reader on the edge of their chair. There is no abrupt ending that leaves a person hanging with questions, but there is also no long, drawn-out wrap-up of the story.

A very interesting thing this author does in the story is to bring things around full-circle. Here is an example:

Reese meets Annie on the street one day, seemingly by accident and buys a cup of lemonade from her. Much later in the story, Reese (incognito) has driven Annie and CiCi (CICI and Annie know him only as Reese, no last name) to Atlanta for a consultation with a heart surgeon, Dr. Royer. Dr. Royer had been Reese's friend and surgical colleague until Reese dropped out of sight 5 years before our story starts. While Dr. Royer is doing tests on Annie, Reese and CiCi sit down in the cafeteria and have coffee and cake. In the course of their conversation, Reese kind of spaces out as he was remembering the last time he was there, which was when Emma was alive. CiCi calls him back to the present, and he asked her to repeat what she had just said.

"CiCi: "I was saying that if Dr. Royer can't locate his old partner, or find another surgeon he thinks can do the job, it won't matter what he learns today."

Reese: "So, where is this ex-partner? What happened to him?"

CiCi: "Pulled a Houdini. All Royer would say was that he suffered a personal tragedy and left medicine. Royer thinks that if Jonathan Mitchell can recover from whatever took him out of medicine, he'll make one of the finest heart surgeons the world has ever known."

The sound of my own name shook me like a cold shower.

CiCi: "Annie prayed for over a year that we'd just run into him in the street. That he'd walk up and buy a cup of lemonade from her. She's sure that he'd know what she needed just as soon as he saw her and would want to help her." (p. 248)"

This sounds like a quite interesting book Andrew. Do they have it in the library at school? And another thing did Annie have her heart Transplant?..... Wait dont tell me i kinda want to read it and find out!!

I don't know if it is in the library or not. My mom has it in her personal library and told me to read it.

You might be able to find in the city library if it isn't in the school library.

At the end of the book, the author, Charles Martin, said he wrote the story to make people more aware of heart disease and that it can affect people of all ages. His story is very interesting and not "preachy", even though Annie's (and Emma's) heart disease runs through nearly every page of the story. If this had been a preachy, "do this and don't do that" type of story, I would have quit reading it pretty early. But Mr. Martin does a great job of keeping the main topic alive while also keeping the story moving very quickly to the very end. I recommend it to anyone who likes adventure or even a love story. This book isn't just a "guy book" or a "girl-y book" it has something in it for everyone.

Now that I have read it once, I may read it again, a little slower this time. The first time through I was so caught up in the story and the action that I couldn't turn the pages fast enough! But if I read it again, since I know what happens, I can take the time to "savor" the story and really make connections that I probably missed the first time.

that sound like a really good book. i guess what i really like is that it tells you piece by piece about the persons past ( or thats how im understanding it). i like books that don't slow down, and just keeps moving and things keep changing. then it also has a meaning of trying to tell people like you said that it doesn't matter how old you are you can still have a hard disease or condition.