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alicebme's review against another edition
4.0
Oh, I love a book for tweens with a smart girl. This is one I'd pass on to my younger self.
rjdenney's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 STARS!!
I was really excited to read this because it had been on my shelf for a whole year and MG contemporaries involving Mental Health are books you rarely see. But sadly this was one big borefest of a read and it's only 270 pages long. This takes place during a summer and nothing really happens, except for Sarah finally finding the courage to tell her alcoholic father how she really feels. I was really rooting for this because it was super intense, I mean the main character's own twin brother was drowned by their mother and she was the only one to make it out alive. I found myself skimming the last 70 pages and found that this was pretty much a waste of good reading time. On to the next one and I hope it's better than this was.
- Richard
I was really excited to read this because it had been on my shelf for a whole year and MG contemporaries involving Mental Health are books you rarely see. But sadly this was one big borefest of a read and it's only 270 pages long. This takes place during a summer and nothing really happens, except for Sarah finally finding the courage to tell her alcoholic father how she really feels. I was really rooting for this because it was super intense, I mean the main character's own twin brother was drowned by their mother and she was the only one to make it out alive. I found myself skimming the last 70 pages and found that this was pretty much a waste of good reading time. On to the next one and I hope it's better than this was.
- Richard
cindyjac's review against another edition
4.0
This was a great read; Sarah is a character that I loved from the beginning: her passion for words, her love of books, and her ways of coping with her life drew me into this story. I will recommend it to my students and suggest they start a word notebook at the same time-I was compelled to add some more words to my notebook after reading this. I will also have to reread "To Kill a Mockingbird" now.
lisawhelpley's review against another edition
5.0
A really good reminder for everyone that perspective and time changes things, but also that life, and love, take work.
aoosterwyk's review against another edition
4.0
Sarah Nelson's mother drowned her and her twin brother when she was two. Fortunately, Sarah lived, but her life has been touched by "crazy" and she constantly looks for signs of it in herself.
Her father is a sad alcoholic and Sarah does her best to care for him and not upset him. Both of these things diminish her life and keep her dishonest.
The summer she turns 12, Sarah turns a corner and begins to form connections with some unique neighbors. She also accepts a challenge from her English teacher, Mr. Whisler, to write letters over the summer and she chooses to write to Atticus Finch, the man she wishes her father could be.
Mr. Whisler has one of my all time favorite lines, "Most people don't know what they truly think until they write it down. Don't you want to know what you TRULY think?". This is his pep talk for summer writing.
The cast of characters is terrific with an older brother/sister across the street and a wise old lady down a house or two, who passes on her book collection. Books/reading/writing feature highly in this story and despite the father's alcoholism, he is a literature professor and shares books with Sarah. He's just squeamish about his OWN story.
Overall a very empowering story about growing up and taking responsibility, especially when the grown-ups won't.
Her father is a sad alcoholic and Sarah does her best to care for him and not upset him. Both of these things diminish her life and keep her dishonest.
The summer she turns 12, Sarah turns a corner and begins to form connections with some unique neighbors. She also accepts a challenge from her English teacher, Mr. Whisler, to write letters over the summer and she chooses to write to Atticus Finch, the man she wishes her father could be.
Mr. Whisler has one of my all time favorite lines, "Most people don't know what they truly think until they write it down. Don't you want to know what you TRULY think?". This is his pep talk for summer writing.
The cast of characters is terrific with an older brother/sister across the street and a wise old lady down a house or two, who passes on her book collection. Books/reading/writing feature highly in this story and despite the father's alcoholism, he is a literature professor and shares books with Sarah. He's just squeamish about his OWN story.
Overall a very empowering story about growing up and taking responsibility, especially when the grown-ups won't.
pacifickle's review against another edition
4.0
Loved Sarah, the main character, her inner voice, her interactions with others, and and especially the tie-ins to Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird." The premise of following up on a child a decade after a botched murder attempt made by her mother is fascinating & heartbreaking, but too grisly a premise for my elementary age readers. Also the book is (justifiably) very harsh on the media exploiting the story for cheap ratings boosts, at the cost of ruining Sarah & her father's attempts to move on. This was done so well, it made me feel guilty for being so interested in the premise. It did its job well, then, I suppose. I also wanted more detail on how Sarah survived the attempted drowning by her mother with no brain damage, and her brother did not.
thebestofaly's review against another edition
4.0
This book has such a good narrative that it made me want to re-read it right after I'd finished it. And that thought itself already is a Sure Sign of Crazy, isn't it?
melissafirman's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
carolynaugustyn's review against another edition
3.0
I liked this and I thought it was decently written but I also didn't love it. I thought the story could get a little scattered at times and the ending wasn't my most favorite. I was surprised to see how dark this book was and kept checking to make sure it was really classified as middle grade (and it is, which I appreciate giving the kids a chance to see some possible realistic/relatable dark plots but DANG this book was dark). A very interesting story but it seemed to miss a few key pieces I would have liked to see to round out the story/give me some more closure.