Reviews

Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World by Ashley Herring Blake

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thenextgenlibrarian's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative fast-paced

5.0

“Resilient means the ability to withstand or recover quickly from difficulties. It doesn’t mean things aren’t hard. It doesn’t mean we aren’t hurt. It just means we keep going. We keep living. We keep trying.”
🌪️
A tornado rips through Ivy’s town, taking her whole house with it. Luckily Ivy along with her parents, older sister, and twin infant brothers make it to the cellar in time. The aftermath has the Aberdeen family living out of a hotel, trying to put the pieces of their lives back together. In the meantime Ivy fills her notebook with artwork about her holding hands with a faceless girl. When the notebook goes missing and pages of it keep showing up in her locker with notes to talk to someone about her new feelings, Ivy wonders if it’s her new friend and crush, June, that could be giving the pages back one at a time.
🖼️
I honestly thought I’d read all of @ashleyhblake MG books at this point but I somehow missed this one and what a mistake that would have been to have never read this novel It was poignant, beautiful, innocent, truthful, and so sweet. I loved Ivy’s journey to coming out and know this resonates with my students because they’ll tell me how much they love this title all the time. I was definitely teary at the end of the story. It’s a definite 5 ⭐️

CW: coming out (theme), ableism, cancer, physical injury, tornado, blackmail, homelessness

mhannah's review against another edition

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5.0

I cried so much in this book. It’s so sweet and I was hooked right away. fast read and I thought it was so well done. I wish this book was around when I was a kid

bethypeffy's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

jenmangler's review against another edition

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4.0

What a beautiful story! How much do I love a coming of age story built around the idea that "The only thing we should do is be ourselves, right?" and then having such kind, thoughtful characters striving to figure out what that is? So much! Once I started reading about Ivy and June and Taryn I could not put the book down.

bettielovesbooks's review against another edition

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3.0

2.5. I really wanted to like it more, I really did, but it was one sad thing after another, it felt overwhelming after a while, I cannot imagine reading this at 13 and not feel terribly depressed, even with the happy ending.