Told from the perspective of a child, this book follows two children and their Mother as they turn a bad situation into adventures. However, these adventures always become nightmares. It is an intriguing book that challenges readers to make sense out what is going on and being said based solely on the thoughts of a kid. I personally enjoyed this perspective and felt connected to the main character, enjoying his high points while being disappointed in his young flaws.

I'm still, several weeks after finishing it, coming to grips with what I think of this story. It was a fascinating and grotesque study of a family crisis that isn't what it seems as times. I can't say much more without giving it away; very interesting book but not one that I was altogether unhappy to see end.

When We Were Romans is one of the few books written from a child's perspective that I could enjoy. There were intentional spelling and grammar mistakes, but it was still very easy to digest. The plot is incredible, with an ending that definitely surprised me.

Kind of a neat POV piece, but just like Room, it got annoying pretty quickly.

I wasn't too thrilled with this one, unfortunately, and that's because of the writing style.
The story is told, and narrated by, a 9 year old boy, and that was my turn off. While I appreciate the attempt for realism, the purposeful misspellings and run away trains of thought wasn't really my cup of tea. The story was the only thing that grabbed me long enough to finish it, though you could guess what was going to happen pretty fast.
As someone said, even though it was a short book already, less would have been better.

Nine year old Lawrence tries to be the man of the family when his mother whisks them off to Rome to hide from an abusive father. Old friends come to the aid of the family, but with old friends come questions that his mother is unable to answer. Soon, life is more chaotic for Lawrence and his sister than it ever was in England, but he does his best to keep his mother grounded in a reality of her own making. Telling a story in the voice of a child narrator is all the rage right now, and in this case I found it a little distracting. The story itself is strong and fast moving, the ending is a train wreck that you can't look away from

This is the story of nine-year-old Lawrence and his family. When his mother Hannah believes her ex-husband is stalking her with ill intent, she drags Lawrence and his younger sister Jemima off to her old stomping ground of Rome from their home in London.
The entire story is told from Lawrence's point of view. Lawrence both annoys and placates young Jemima, observes his mother's old friends, and deals with his mother's changing feelings. I liked how Lawrence matched the people he met with animals that he felt suited them. He was also stuck on a book series, Hideous Histories, issues of which covered Petrifying Popes and Calamitous Caesars. He keeps giving little stories about the historic figures that he reads about and one finds that the often relate to issues around him. Lawrence also loves space and talks about the various facts he has learned about the universe.
Along for the trip is Lawrence's hamster, Herman, and he provides interesting lessons and distractions along the way. As I read, I began to realize that the problems that Lawrence and his family were fleeing didn't go away when they got to Rome, and Lawrence is just too young to be able to deal with them appropriately although he does try.
The one thing I thing I could had done without is the misspellings scattered throughout the text. I believe they are supposed to emphasize Lawrence's age, but I don't think that they added to the believability of the story, and I found them distracting.

On the cover of this book, a quote from Pat Conroy links this book to both To Kill a Mockingbird and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which I found intriguing. I would not have linked Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird at all - she is much more adult than Lawrence seems to be. And Lawrence is just a kid in an abnormal situation, while much of what happens to Christopher Boone is because of his own disabilities. However, I did appreciate the quote because it made me think a bit more about Lawrence,the narrator in When We Were Romans.

This is an odd little book. That is neither bad or good, it just wasn't quite what I expected.

I learned about it because of the Book Brahmin on Shelf-Awareness. Many of the books suggested in this column have been great additions to my reading shelf. The story is told by a nine year old boy who can't spell and who believes his mother in all things. Most nine year olds would agree with him - moms are to be believed.

I seem to be in a period of reading books that contain moms who are angry, crazy, absent or anything other than normal. I know this is serendipity, but it made dealing with Lawrence's mother hard for me. She really wasn't competent and I worried so about the consequences of her actions.

I did not fall into this novel, but I am not sorry I read it. Kneale has a good ear and his language seems right for a nine year old. I recommend this book to readers of literary fiction, to people interested in the voice of child narrators and to those are willing to deal with dysfunctional families.