Dented Cans

By: Heather Walsh

Narrated by: Appelusa McGlynn

A family secret is revealed during an ill-fated - yet hilarious - trip to Disney World.

Sixteen-year-old Hannah Sampson knows her family is not what you would call normal. Her father compulsively buys dented cans and has a particular fondness for cans without labels, which are extremely discounted because their contents are a mystery. Her mother takes countless pictures of her family and then glues them down into the pages of her scrapbooks, but does not allow anyone to look at them. Ryan, Hannah's mischievous 14-year-old brother, is headed straight for the remedial track at the local community college, if he’s lucky. Ben, her eight-year-old brother, is a walking sound effects machine, who prefers to communicate with noises rather than words. While Hannah is focused on escaping her working-class Connecticut suburb, she also finds herself being tugged back home as she worries about her brother Ben.

Hannah’s parents inflict one last family vacation on the Sampson children, a trip that goes comically wrong almost from the get-go. Hannah is forced to confront her family's past in Disney World, of all places, when an emotional argument prompts her parents to disclose a secret they have been keeping from the children for 16 years. Ultimately, she must decide whether to leave her hometown and not look back, or to focus on helping her family.

©2012 Heather Walsh (P)2013 Heather Walsh

Just ok

Narration was fine. Story line was just ok, not sure how finding out a secret could affect the family too much. Way too many " he said she said". They really slammed Disney alot , I've never been there, but made me want to go now just to see if it could be as uneventful as the author made it seem.

Teenage angst, a family secret and Mickey Mouse

This is a wonderful read. The characters are interesting and relatable, the story holds your interest, and the narration is spot on.