Independence

When Max Starling’s parents are in parts unknown and he and his grandmother are not sure where they are or if they are in danger, his grandmother wants him to move in with her. But he has a different take on the unexpected situation. He is only twelve and his father always told him that a boy becomes a man and independent when he is twelve. His father may have been engaging in a little hyperbole but Max is naïve and takes his father’s advice seriously. He refuses his Grammie’s repeated invitations to move in. She argues that he is only twelve and shouldn’t be staying by himself at night in his big house. But Max’s pride and his desire to live up to his father’s standards keep him from caving to his Grammie’s insistence that he stay...