Title: A Snicker of Magic
Author: Natalie Lloyd Category/Genre: Middle Grade, Magical Realism Length: 311 pages Summary Felicity Pickle is an eleven-year old girl who is constantly moving from place to place with her mother and her younger sister. She struggles each time she begins school and has a difficult time speaking to strangers and making friends. Instead, is blessed with a unique talent: she sees words floating around people and objects telling her what they feel. Words such as hope, love, lonely, stormy, etc. These words may float or dance or come in any color or even be full of sparkles. Felicity collects her favorite words and writes them down in her journal. At the beginning of the story, Felicity’s family moves to Midnight Gulch, Tennessee where her mother grew up and her aunt still lives. The residents say there used to be magic in the town, but it left about 100 years before after two magical brothers fought. In Midnight Gulch, Felicity is finally assigned a teacher than understands her. She also makes her first friend, Jonah. Felicity keeps seeing the words, Yes, Yes, Yes and realizes that she wants her family to settle in Midnight Gulch more than anything. She is fascinated by the stories that people tell her about its magical history and wants to learn more. With Jonah’s help, they hatch a plan to keep her family in town. Felicity signs up to read a poem at the Duel for her school. To speak in front of a crowd and to get her family to finally stay in one place is going to require a snicker of magic. My Review This was a beautifully written book. Each page reads like a piece of poetry. The author paints a picture on each page so it is easy to see each scene with Felicity’s words hovering in the air. I believe it is a book to be read slowly so you can soak up the imagery. The story is sweet about a girl who wants what most of us take for granted: a place to call home. Her friend Jonah’s goal in life is to make people in town happy. It is a feel-good story rather than a fast paced book. I believe it will appeal to both middle grade boys and girls who may identify with Felicity’s struggles. But I believe there is a larger audience: people of all ages who want to escape for a few hours into a beautiful story. The main characters are well developed and many unique people are introduced. I particularly like that Jonah, her best friend, is in a wheelchair. However, the book is not about that. There is only a mention here and there about his wheelchair. Instead, the story concentrates on his friendship with Felicity and his big heart. I imagine this would appeal to people with their own disabilities to see someone who might be a bit like them, but prefer to be treated as a regular person rather than someone special simply due to their disability. I am a member of two book clubs, and we read a variety of genres. Plus, as a Young Adult and Middle Grade writer, I am constantly reading YA books to improve my skills. If you would like to read more of my reviews, check out my ratings at Christine at Goodreads. If you like them, please send me a friend request. Thank you for reading this post.
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Title: Openly Straight
Author: Bill Konigsberg Genre: Contemporary YA Length: 320 pages Summary Rafe Goldberg begins his junior year at Natick, an “all boys” boarding school in Massachusetts. He was an openly gay 16-year old from Boulder Colorado where his community had accepted him since he came out in eighth grade, and his parents truly celebrated his diversity. However, he found the gay label got in the way of people seeing him and prevented him from being just "one of the guys". He wanted to take a break from being gay, so he researched other schools and begged to transfer to Natick. At the beginning of the school year, Rafe is immediately drawn into the soccer crowd and is labeled as a jock for the first time in his life. He relishes being part of a group that had always shut him out . He also becomes friends with his eccentric roommate, Albie, and Albie’s openly gay friend, Toby. As the weeks go by, Rafe develops a tight friendship with a jock named Ben. Ben is different from the rest of them. He is smarter and philosophical and doesn’t seem to care what anyone thinks of him. As their friendship deepens, Rafe realizes he loves Ben but doesn’t know how Ben feels. It’s complicated by the fact that Rafe is hiding his true identify from all the students at Natick. All the while, Rafe’s English teacher, Mr. Scarborough, asks each student to keep a private journal to record his thoughts, so Rafe’s essays are peppered throughout the book. The book takes place between September and December. My Review This was an excellent book. It was not only a fun, entertaining read, but I came away with a greater knowledge of the challenges of being labeled as different. (The book focused on gay versus straight, but through Bryce, the only black in their class, you also learn some of Rafe’s challenges are shared by others perceived as “different”.) Written in first person, the reader gains access to a teenage boy’s thoughts about being gay. Given that Rafe had been openly gay back in Colorado and was now hiding it, he was able to constantly reflect on the differences of being gay versus straight in a way that you may not see in a book told from the viewpoint of a person just coming out or openly gay. Also, Rafe’s parents are very involved in the LGBTQ community, so Rafe is a far more educated gay male than the average 16-year old. Finally, through his essays the reader gets an even deeper view of his experiences. I am a member of two book clubs, and we read a variety of genres. Plus, as a Young Adult author, I am constantly reading YA books to improve my writing. If you would like to read more of my reviews, check out my ratings at Christine at Goodreads. If you like them, please send me a friend request. Thank you for reading this post. Title: Fangirl
Author: Rainbow Rowell Genre: Contemporary New Adult with Fantasy Excerpts Length: 445 pages Summary Cath and her twin sister, Wren, move away from home to the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. Until now, they have been inseparable and Cath wants to remain that way. However, Wren insists it is time to become independent, so they have separate roommates in separate dorms. Cath is miserable. Not only does she miss Wren, but she is stuck with a hateful roommate, Reagan, and her boyfriend who is always hanging out. Meanwhile, Wren is partying it up with her own roommate and loving college life, growing farther and farther apart from Cath. During her freshmen year, Cath learns to live on her own, make a couple of friends, and find her first real boyfriend. She also has to deal with having a father with mental illness living on his own back at home as well as dealing with a mother who is trying to get back into the twins’ lives after leaving them ten years earlier. Cath does have one activity that brings her great joy. She writes fanfiction for the hugely popular Simon Snow series (think Harry Potter). Unknown to everyone at school, she is a famous author in the fanfiction world, often getting tens of thousands of hits on each chapter she writes. Between each chapter of Fangirl, we see excerpts from either one of the seven published Simon Snow books or from Cath’s fanfiction, so we slowly get to see the magic world that Cath would prefer to live in. The book takes place over the course of a school year in 2011-12. My Review I truly enjoyed the story of Cath discovering herself away from her twin at college. The author did a great job with character development, and I got to know Cath, Wren, Reagan, Levi and her father very well. It portrayed an authentic representation of the unique challenges of college for a small segment of people: the extremely introverted ones who distance themselves rather than participate in the social aspects of school. What was unique about this book is the author inserted 1-2 page excerpts between each chapter from the Simon Snow series or from the fanfiction that Cath was writing. Each of these excerpts tied in with the chapter that preceded it. I would have liked to analyze each of these pages more. Unfortunately, I tend to plow through books so probably lost a lot of the meaning in those scenes. Also, I don’t love fantasy, so at first they were distracting and I read through them quickly to get back to the main story. I would recommend that you take the time to get to know the Simon Snow characters right from the beginning and you will get much more enjoyment and understand from these pages. It was also interesting to me to learn more about fanfiction. Although I am a diehard reader, I have never known much about this type of writing. Although the book is written about girls in their freshmen year (thus New Adult), I believe the content was appropriate for a younger reader as it is much milder than you would find in many YA books. There were references to alcohol, but Cath and her father frowned on drinking, particularly when Wren ended up with alcohol poisoning. Through her sister there were references to sex, but Cath herself only kissed her boyfriend. I am a member of two book clubs, and we read a variety of genres. Plus, as a Young Adult author, I am constantly reading YA books to improve my writing. If you would like to read more of my reviews, check out my ratings at Christine at Goodreads. If you like them, please send me a friend request. Thank you for reading this post. |
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