Scan barcode
manwithanagenda's review
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Molly has been forced to spend the summer in New York City to help watch her ailing grandmother while the rest of the family...goes on vacation? She befriends the boy next door and they enjoy spending time in her grandmother's shuttered antique shop in the basement level of her brownstone. A friend of her grandmother's who often brings in merchandise, a homeless man who lives in the subway, gives the children a map that eventually leads them to their adventure.
The book is slim but I liked how Willard used imagery, especially with the silverfish and the firebrat, in the way a child first hearing the words might do. There is a lot of whimsy and magic and a barrage of odd characters encountered, but it doesn't add up into anything more than a way to pass the time.
This turned out to be in the books favor though, since I was allowed to focus on why I reading it. I was reading the book out loud because it was the simplest book on hand when my cat, herself a friend from childhood, was dying and I wanted her to keep hearing my voice while I sat with her. A story with too much going on beneath the surface would have been too much for me. If I had read it when I was seven or eight it would have been a fantasy gem, but 'Firebrat' unfortunately is not good enough to compete with the better options out there so I can't justify keeping it.
The book is slim but I liked how Willard used imagery, especially with the silverfish and the firebrat, in the way a child first hearing the words might do. There is a lot of whimsy and magic and a barrage of odd characters encountered, but it doesn't add up into anything more than a way to pass the time.
This turned out to be in the books favor though, since I was allowed to focus on why I reading it. I was reading the book out loud because it was the simplest book on hand when my cat, herself a friend from childhood, was dying and I wanted her to keep hearing my voice while I sat with her. A story with too much going on beneath the surface would have been too much for me. If I had read it when I was seven or eight it would have been a fantasy gem, but 'Firebrat' unfortunately is not good enough to compete with the better options out there so I can't justify keeping it.
More...