The Honest Truth is a really good book by Dan Gemeinhart. This book is realistic fiction. This book is about a boy named Mark and his dog. Mark has cancer and he knows his life is ending soon because of it. So Mark leaves home one day with Beau, his dog and hop on a train that he bought a ticket for the previous day. He is really smart and tricked everyone by buying a bus ticket to another town so when the police went looking for him they would look in the town he bought the bus ticket to. His goal was to climb Mount Rainier, but on the way he has some challenges. First he hops on a train to Seattle, and eats at a really gross dinner. Then when he was walking on the streets late at night and these mean bullies come and beat him up and take all of his money, besides one $20 bill. Then he goes in a little restaurant to clean up, and he asked these ladies at the restaurant that speak spanish for a phone. They understood him and let him call, MArk called the police. When he did they picked up, Mark was about to tell them he was the kid missing, but Beau barked and that bark told him to keep going, so he did. Meanwhile Mark’s best friend Jessie, is back home and really worried. Jessie finds a note and figures out where Mark is but doesn’t tell anyone. Mark hopped on a train to get to the mountain. Next Mark sneaks on a bus that he doesn’t pay for so the bus driver kicks him and Beau off the bus. Mark decides to walk the rest of the way. Halfway there A man name Wesley give him a ride. He feeds Mark and finds out what he is doing. Mark says that he is going to climb the mountain just a little for his grandfather that died. So Mark Starts to walk again and finds A little Island. Mark Decides to go to the island and walks through the island with Beau, but with 2 steps left Mark slips and Beau saves him. He starts to walk again and finally he gets to the mountain. When he is walking all of a sudden Beau starts barking and pulling on Mark’s leg. Mark sees that there is a crevice there. Mark could’ve just died the Beau saved his life. Mark decides to jump the crevice and he makes the jump but Beau didn’t. He got stuck. Mark pulls him out with his rope and decides to take a small nap. The police finds where they are and he goes to the hospital. Mark dies from all these disease and that’s how the book ends.
In the book I think some of the Mark main traits are he really brave, and he never gives up. Mark is really complicated, and changes moods a lot. He is brave because he climbs a mountain only with his dog . Since Mark was brave he was able to climb the mountain. In the book the setting changes a lot. The setting changes when there is something bad about to happen. For example when Beau was trapped in the creavis the clouds were big, and it was freezing cold out. Mark also always sticks to what he wants to do. For example, Mark never gives up because he could of turned around at any point, but he didn’t.
In the book I thought there were two life lessons. I thought one of them was dream big. I thought one of them was dream big ,I thought it was this because Mark had a really big dream,to climb the mountain, but he never gave up and he did it. The other life lesson was never give up. Mark couldn’t of ever done it if he gave up. He was about to give up at the restaurant, but he didn’t and that was the main reason he finished climbing the mountain. When mark left home there were some issues. His best friend worried about him a lot, as well as his parents. He struggled a lot during his trip. Overall I really liked this book. When something bad happens you get scared too. If I had to recommend a book one of them would definitely be The Honest Truth. You should really read it!