I’m going to keep this simple: as much as it was the case with The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian I don’t have it in me to *critique* If I Was Your Girl on the same level as I would a more … normative … book. It’s is very simple, mostly very pleasant, with Amanda, a milquetoast, blank-slate protagonist who wants nothing more than to be liked, to fit in, to have friends, to be confident, to be safe, and to be […]
Georgia Peaches and a lot of elephant facts
This was such a cute book, and full of great messages — love yourself, be yourself, God loves everyone, it’s okay to be gay, accept people for who they are, etc — that this straight married atheist absolutely loved. Teenager Jo Gordon has been out and proud for years, and her radio evangelist father has always supported her. Unfortunately, the summer before her senior year, he remarries for the third time (to a much younger woman), moves Jo from fairly accepting Atlanta, GA to the much more […]
Probably the best book I’ve read all year
I knew this book would be great going in because it won both a Caldecott Honor and Printz Honor award, but I was still completely blown away. Definitely the most beautiful book I’ve read this year and maybe ever. I would hang so many of these panels up on my walls as standalone art. Not only is the art gobsmackingly stunning, the story is well written as well. Rose and Windy spend every summer together when their families stay in cabins at a lake in […]
Find out who you are and do it on purpose
3.5 stars Willowdean “Will” Dickson is a teenager in a small town in Texas, with nothing much to recommend it, except being home of the oldest beauty pageant in the state (possibly the country, I don’t remember). The Miss Teen Bluebonnet is a big deal and Will’s mother’s biggest claim to fame is that she won it when she was young, and still fits into the evening dress she wore. She now wears it every year, as she presents the pageant. Will is not skinny […]
I felt the need to share this with you immediately!
I received this book in the mail today, and I had only read a few pages when I knew I had to review it. “This book,” I said to myself, “needs to be shared with everyone I know!” I got the book through a Nerd Block, one of those monthly subscription boxes that sends you miscellaneous items through the mail, with things you may or may not actually want. This was one of the known items, so it was the main reason I shelled out […]
“I used to be someone.”
Dramatic irony — simply, the idea that the audience knows something that the character doesn’t — is a common tension-building storytelling device. From the point of view of the audience, it’s oppositional from the “plot twist,” where the character(s) and the audience are both in the dark and they figure out the crucial, shocking bit of information at the same time, and it completely transforms the story, both moving forward and retroactively. There are the stories that play both sides. They don’t explicitly inform the […]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 537
- 538
- 539
- 540
- 541
- …
- 565
- Next Page »