A sweet balanced story that teaches children about responsibility and ownership, apology and forgiveness, and honesty. A small point, but what pulled me out of the story was when Marcus asked his 7 year old sister to help him with his fractions homework. Children are usually around 9 years old when they learn fractions and there is no earlier indication that she is great at math. So this seemed a little odd. otherwise, the story flowed nicely.
Thank you for writing in The Ink Well.
You make an excellent point about Marcus asking his 7-year-old sister for help with fractions homework being unrealistic. I agree that most children don't learn fractions until around age 9. I should have fact-checked the typical age for introducing fractions in school curriculum before writing that detail.
In the future, I will be more mindful about matching plot points like a character's math knowledge to education standards for that age group.
I'm glad the rest of the story flowed well for you. Thank you again for your perspective - it will truly help me improve as a writer. I appreciate you taking the time to leave your response, thanks for all.