Merely players

Replay was one of the cutest books I've read in a long time. An 11-year-old with a creative and active imagination -- who is frequently lost in hist large, loud family -- practices for his school play, find his father's journal in the attic, and makes up scenes from his more exciting, fabulous future.

It captured childhood imagination in its purest form, in the most ingenious way: in the context of a child's life, with all the craziness that accompanies family dynamics. Childhood fantasies (like the stage of the school play, like the stage of family drama, like the stage of life) become the arena where confusion, retreat, hopes, and fears are all settled.  In the process of becoming an adult, that coping process is lost. But Replay managed to recapture both the magic and the tragedy of it.