Rating: 3 1/2 stars

When Jack wakes up, he’s now five-years-old and very excited to be a year older. Ma’s birthday gift to Jack is a drawing she has done of him while he was asleep. Jack will hang it up in the back of Wardrobe where he sleeps each night.

Jack doesn’t have his own bed, only Bed Ma sleeps in. The reason is that Old Nick comes almost every night to visit with Ma and makes Bed squeak. Jack counts the squeaks, but stays hidden in Wardrobe because his Ma wants him to.

Jack is scared of Old Nick, even though he brings him and Ma things like cereal, pasta and even a truck for his birthday. Jack loves Room where he and Ma live. They spend their days watching TV, playing games, reading books and doing exercise. Room is all that Jack knows, an 11x11 square where seven-years-ago Ma was kidnapped by Old Nick and forced to live in Room where she eventually gave birth to Jack.

Jack loves Room. Ma tells him there is a whole other world, known as the Outside, which he confuses with what he watches on Television. He thinks cartoons like Dora the Explorer and Spongebob Squarepants are real. He doesn’t ever want to leave Room because it has everything he could ever need, including his Ma; but Jack knows his Ma isn’t happy about being in Room. Sometimes Ma is Gone, where she’ll lie in bed, not moving, and won’t eat or play with him.

Ma tells Jack that they need to escape Room after Old Nick punishes her for something she did that angered him. Ma has a plan to leave Room and needs Jack to be a big boy and help her, because in order for them to go to the Outside, it all comes down to Jack being brave and doing his part for it to work.

Room is an emotional, breathtaking read that shows the deep love a mother and child has for one another. I wasn’t certain how I would feel reading about a woman who has been a sex slave to a disturbed man for seven years, and her son, who is the outcome of her rape. The amazing thing Emma Donaghue gets across so well in Room is that even though Jack is the product of Ma’s abuse, she never, ever regrets having him. Jack gives her the hope and the will to live.

Jack is adorable, endearing and smart as a whip. Since Room is from his point of view, we see things through a child’s eyes. Jack’s entire world is a square box with only the simplest of essentials such as a television, stove, table, chairs etc… to him this is his treasure chest, his playground.

Room is a book you’ll want to read again as soon as you finish. It’s a powerful testament of how love, not hate, can give a person hope, and Ma’s hope is Jack. Room is a message of love. I simply loved this book and this one that both parents and children should read together. One of the most powerful books I’ve read this year and going in my top 10.
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Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; First Edition edition (September 13, 2010)
ISBN-13: 978-0316098335