Edward Tulane began his life in a wonderful home, though he didn't know enough to appreciate it. Abilene Tulane loved him, sat him by the window with a pocket watch every day to wait for her to come back from school. He sat at the dinner table, he was tucked in at night. But he considered it all beneath him. Abilene treated him as an equal, but Edward couldn't interact with her, so it seemed rather pointless.

On an ocean voyage, Edward draws some unwanted attention from other passengers, and ends up going overboard. His last sight is his watch glinting in the sunlight as Abilene holds it high.

He spends a long time at the bottom of the ocean, buried in the dark, alone. Finally, a storm comes along, tossing and turning him, until he finds himself caught in a fisherman's net. Once discovered, he gets brought home to Nellie, who loves him immediately, but much to his dismay, has decided he's a girl.

He doesn't like the dresses, but life as Susannah isn't so bad. Nellie talks to him, and her husband takes him out nightly to see the stars. Things continue happily, until a visit from their daughter, who decides Edward is some wicked thing, and takes him with the garbage to the dump.

Eventually dug up by a dog, Edward then becomes Malone, and lives a hobo's traveling life. Until he gets thrown from a train, and rescued by an old woman who thinks he'll by a fine scarecrow.

Her working boy doesn't agree, and brings him home to his ill sister, Sarah Ruth, who Edward loves til her dying day.

After a day spent dancing in Memphis, and a meal unpayed for, Edward suffers his worst trauma yet. Which leads him to the doll mender, where the circle eventually completes.

It takes much for Edward to truly understand the story Pellegrina, Abilene's grandmother, told them so long ago. Even after he's learned his lesson, he must relearn it, as so much hardship and lost love has caused him to grow jaded. It takes an ancient doll to open his mind, and then his heart.

Having read this story, I can indeed see how it could turn a hard man like Brother Kuckles (Brother Odd, Dean Koontz) to change his ways. Edward's tale should be enough to crack even the hardest heart. I may be needing to reserve a shelf on my favorites bookshelf for Kate DiCamillo--I'm sure to be adding this to the permanent collection too.