Ever had a favorite book you wish was more fleshed out?

I had two, very fond children's books that were actually in two parts:
"The Cay"
"Timothy of the Cay"

For those who hadn't read them, basically, Phillip is this American kid in WWII who's going home on this ship. The ship is torpedoed by a German U-boat and he's rescued by a former slave named Timothy. Due to a freak accident involving a mast to the boy's head, he's rendered blind as the two make their way to a remote cay and find ways to get rescued.

Now here comes the spoilers.

The sequel basically furthers Phillip's adventure. He is finally rescued, goes home and starts to find a way to get his sight back. The book also explores Timothy's life prior to meeting Phillip.

End of Spoilers.

I really enjoyed "The Cay", but its sequel somehow lacked it. I felt as if the author was rushing the plot along instead of taking it slow like he did the first book. There were so many missed potentials and half the time, I didn't know what was going on.

For example, in the first chapter of the sequel, Phillip is on a battleship getting checked by a doctor. A few pages later, he's on a plane headed back to Virginia before it ends. I couldn't really relate to him much. He felt more like an adult. Yes, I know, going through something like that would make someone more mature than they were before, but still, I watched "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and although Aang was the freaking hero, they were still able to make him childlike enough so we could relate to him while not making him be too immature.

There was a really great potential to show that Phillip was still a kid, despite his ordeal. I half expected him to ask the captain to take him to the bridge and let him use the steering wheel. Lord knows I would have done something like that. XD

The chapters were very confusing. The odd-numbered chapters were from the POV of Phillip, and the even-numbered chapters were in third-person following Timothy.

So, on a scale of 1 to 10...

The Cay- 9/10
Timothy of the Cay- 7.5/10

So, how about you? Ever had something like this happen?