Pay It Forward
   Catherine Ryan Hyde
  1999 Simon & Schuster, NY USA
   ISBN: 0684862719


12 year old Trevor doesn't know that his school assignment has worked, all he can see is failure. Still, something has happened & the idea he thought up has caught on & people are changing.

While I don't consider myself an Old Grump, I was skeptical about Trevor's idea until I tried it out for myself. My, my! Suddenly there are all sorts of interesting repercussions.

There's a video of a country song that promotes just such an idea as Trevor's & I've always enjoyed the song.

Doing good for others is a sappy thing, requiring only that the doer feel good about the doing. That's a subtle side-effect Trevor has to find out. While Pay It Forward is similar to Random Acts of Kindness, because of its exponential potential, Pay It Forward can snowball its way around the globe & it does.

Thinking of ways to do good makes you proud, engaged, important & like you've got enough to do unto others. At my poorest times I've always looked around to volunteer - food banks, domestic violence prevention programs & holiday baskets. Trevor takes that one step further & a decade later, the world is indeed changed just by the mathematics of it.

This is the best of reads containing both a healthy dose of humor & tragedy, failure & success. A nifty idea presented in an absorbing way. Made me think a lot, ponder on the philosophy of doing good, making a difference in my lifetime.

The miracle of this book is the not knowing - who will be next & how they'll do it. Yes, my scarred skeptic smurked at the thought of doing good in our here & now AIDS fields of Africa or lost children of South America & Russia or the bride killings in India or... or... should that stop me from starting?

A very good read, sometimes as predictable as a farmer's almanac & sometimes breathtakingly simple. Highly recommended! Makes me want to find her other books & read them too!

Also by Catherine Ryan Hyde: Funerals for Horses & Earthquake Weather
(08/20/00)

Rebecca