Ben Coffin has had a hard life. His parents died when he was young and he spent several years in foster care. He was finally adopted by Tess whose partner died. Tess promises they are going to leave New Jersey and move to Florida one day, so Ben is careful about becoming attached to people. Then he meets Flip, an abandoned dog. Flip steals Ben's heart and the two become instant friends. Ben starts training Flip to be a therapy dog with the help of his friend Halley who he met at the library. Ben is bullied at school and spends a lot of time in the library reading scifi books. His favorite librarian, Mrs. Lorentz helps him out a lot. Halley is Mrs. Lorentz's daughter and she is very sick. She is fighting her disease with everything she has though and her and Ben start writing a book together. 

When Tess unexpectedly dies, Ben goes to live with her sister Jeannie and her boyfriend. Jeannie is nice enough and genuinely wants to take care of Ben. Her boyfriend is completely opposite. One day he is drunk and hits Ben. That is the end of it as far as Ben is concerned. He plans on never going back. He ends up with the Lorentz family who agree to take him in. Tragedy follows tragedy for young Ben and Halley gets worse and things go progressively down hill.

Reading instead of listening to this book was definitely the way to go. The first time I listened to it and felt like I missed a lot of the emotional impact of this story. It is a sad story with a lot of tragedy, but also with a lot of heart. Ben is a really resilient character who has been through a lot in a short amount of time. However, he doesn't seem to let that get him down.