Fleeting elements of it have stuck with me over the years, long after I’ve forgotten all the other kids’ books. It seemed to be a sort of grittier, realism-oriented story, with a narration that was very first person, a kind of interior monologue about what the boy was experiencing.
The two things that I remember about it are that he eats some scrambled eggs at the beginning and is bitter about his biting down on a piece of egg shell–he really hates it when that happens. And then his parents tell him he’s going to “stay with (his grandparents, maybe?) for awhile”, trying to kind of make it positive, like it will be fun; but he’s not buying it and he’s upset. I think maybe it had happened before?
It carried the sense of their having to go off and look for work or something–definitely an idea that hardship was behind it. But I think it was supposed to be more present day (in the '70s or maybe '60s; not sure how new the book was), rather than some kind of Ma Joad Dust Bowl type situation.
Ring a bell with anyone?