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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
I enjoyed the premise and the emotional content. Some of the storylines weren't original enough for me, but that doesn't mean they weren't good. I'm getting pickier. I kind of wish I hadn't read so many kid novels because I think it would have struck me as great long ago. I want to use this one for it's balance of emo and story structure. It's my fave kind of read. Favorite character was likely the mother. I like cranky people who have hidden reasons for being cranky. They make you look deeper to understand them but if you don't scratch through you will never know - your loss. Good characters. More rewarding when you finally do know them and I think they are more fiercely loyal.
This book was very sad due to the tragedy in it, but it also had a great mystery. Even though i found the mystery predictable, I thought it rounded out the story nicely.
The premise is a bit shocking: a young girl loses most of her family in a crash only to decide to change funerals. However, this is an incredibly endearing book about death and life that is ideal for a youngish reader faced with those challenges.
Big mistake to finish up this book while on the reference desk. I started tearing up and feverishly hoping no one would come up with a question! While I wouldn't recommend this to younger children, older kids would like it.
What I don't understand is why a crematorium would put a funeral home out of business. It didn't, but it was talked about in the book that it could happen, which is why Daralynn came up with the idea of a living funeral. My great grandpa was cremated, but we still had a funeral for him at a funeral home, so I don't understand why that would have been a problem.
While I did enjoy this book from one of my favorite authors, it was a very heavy read. I felt very drained reading Grounded, but I'm glad I did. Not all books are an escape, but rather a smudged mirror of the reality some people have to withstand.
Grounded is about 12-year-old tomboy Daralynn who was grounded by her mother because she went fishing in the local pond without her permission. As punishment, she was not allowed to go on a flight with her siblings as her father pilots the plane. Horrifically, the plane crashes. Daralynn, her mother, and her hinted-Alzheimer's grandmother are all left to grieve. She is sent hundreds of baby dolls by well-wishers and regrettably earns the nickname Dolly. Her mother, Hattie, arranged her family so beautifully for their coffins that she becomes a hair stylist for the town while Dolly helps clean.
This book dropped hints throughout that it took place during the seventies: Perry Mason, Vietnam War, radio shows. I believe this is a reference to the author's childhood. It's a very immersive reading experience and I think that's why I was so connected emotionally.
Dolly was a character easy to like and relate. She felt bereft without her family and struggling to fight the numbness. Her Aunt Josie and Uncle Waldo helped the family get back on their feet. They provided wonderful side characters and a caring environment.
In every Kate Klise book, you need to have a mystery with a smart kid to solve it. Some sneaky snake charming man named Clem rolls into town with a mobile crematorium. He is starting to take away the local funeral home's customers and has Aunt Josie wrapped around his little finger. It's up to Dolly to find his real motives and the suspicious new business. It leads her back to her fishing hole, Lake Doc, where everything began.
The mystery was easy to guess, but not in the way I imagined. Grounded is a wonderful story about loss, family, kindness, and honesty. It is classified as young adult, but wonderful for all ages.
Grounded is about 12-year-old tomboy Daralynn who was grounded by her mother because she went fishing in the local pond without her permission. As punishment, she was not allowed to go on a flight with her siblings as her father pilots the plane. Horrifically, the plane crashes. Daralynn, her mother, and her hinted-Alzheimer's grandmother are all left to grieve. She is sent hundreds of baby dolls by well-wishers and regrettably earns the nickname Dolly. Her mother, Hattie, arranged her family so beautifully for their coffins that she becomes a hair stylist for the town while Dolly helps clean.
This book dropped hints throughout that it took place during the seventies: Perry Mason, Vietnam War, radio shows. I believe this is a reference to the author's childhood. It's a very immersive reading experience and I think that's why I was so connected emotionally.
Dolly was a character easy to like and relate. She felt bereft without her family and struggling to fight the numbness. Her Aunt Josie and Uncle Waldo helped the family get back on their feet. They provided wonderful side characters and a caring environment.
In every Kate Klise book, you need to have a mystery with a smart kid to solve it. Some sneaky snake charming man named Clem rolls into town with a mobile crematorium. He is starting to take away the local funeral home's customers and has Aunt Josie wrapped around his little finger. It's up to Dolly to find his real motives and the suspicious new business. It leads her back to her fishing hole, Lake Doc, where everything began.
The mystery was easy to guess, but not in the way I imagined. Grounded is a wonderful story about loss, family, kindness, and honesty. It is classified as young adult, but wonderful for all ages.
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Kate Klise manages to navigate a heartrending topic and yet keep the overall tone hopeful. Some of the situations are outlandish, but the feel of the book remains true to life.
Daralynn Oakland should have been in her father's plane that day. Instead, she was sitting at home, grounded by her mother, when a state trooper arrived to tell them that the plane's engine failed, and that Daralynn's father, older brother, and younger sister died in the crash. After that, nothing can be the same. Her homemaker mother stops cooking meals and takes a job preparing bodies at the local funeral home. Her grandmother loses interest in anything except playing with the 237 dolls well-wishers sent Daralynn. And her single, sophisticated Aunt Josie becomes infatuated with Mr. Clem, a new man in town with some awfully big ideas. Daralynn is just beginning to cope with her grief and the changes in her life when she stumbles on a mystery to solve.
The tiny town of Digginsville comes alive through carefully selected details, such as the K-12 school that is home to the "Mighty Moles" and Doc Lake, where Daralynn enjoys fishing for catfish stocked by the Department of Conservation. The year is left vague, but it is clearly a few decades ago, indicated by the fact that Uncle Waldo has been home from Vietnam for just six years before the crash, and a mention late in the book of events "twenty-two years after" that year. The voice of the first-person narrator, who sounds like an adult recalling her childhood, rather than a current sixth- or seventh-grader, reflects this perspective without calling too much attention to it.
There is some heavy material here, but Klise uses a gentle touch with her quirky characters. Their journey from life B.C. ("Before Crash") to A.D. ("After Death") is not without humor or adventure. Recommend to fans of Wiles' Each Little Bird That Sings and LaFleur's Love, Aubrey.
The tiny town of Digginsville comes alive through carefully selected details, such as the K-12 school that is home to the "Mighty Moles" and Doc Lake, where Daralynn enjoys fishing for catfish stocked by the Department of Conservation. The year is left vague, but it is clearly a few decades ago, indicated by the fact that Uncle Waldo has been home from Vietnam for just six years before the crash, and a mention late in the book of events "twenty-two years after" that year. The voice of the first-person narrator, who sounds like an adult recalling her childhood, rather than a current sixth- or seventh-grader, reflects this perspective without calling too much attention to it.
There is some heavy material here, but Klise uses a gentle touch with her quirky characters. Their journey from life B.C. ("Before Crash") to A.D. ("After Death") is not without humor or adventure. Recommend to fans of Wiles' Each Little Bird That Sings and LaFleur's Love, Aubrey.
This is definitely the darkest of Kate Klise's, and while I'm sure it'll have English teachers across the country salivating, I'm not a fan. In the hands of these authors come some of my all-time favorites in epistolary format. This book is written without the trademark letters and notes, and is your typical Language Arts class fodder, rife with the big questions, symbolism, and your good old token character death. There are bits and pieces here and there that really are beautiful concepts, such as the brief discussions on grief, trauma, processing emotions, and post-traumatic stress, as well as the whole idea of 'living funerals', which is something I would personally love to see take off. We so often don't get to tell our loved ones how much they matter until our love doesn't matter anymore. I can think of all kinds of classroom discussions this book could launch, but as far as a fun read goes, nowhere near my first choice. Overall, it's an okay book, but it lacks the spark of Klise's previous books. Humor and quirk is what she does best. I miss that so much.
For a girl who never liked dolls, Daralynn sure had a lot of them. She had gotten over 200 dolls after her father, brother and sister were killed in a plane crash. She had also gotten her nickname, Dolly, because of them. Dolly lived with her mother and next door to her grandmother. After the funeral for her family, Dolly’s mother became the hairdresser for the local funeral home. Later, she branched out to owning her own salon and doing hair on the living. It was Dolly who had the big idea to start doing living funerals at the funeral home to make more money. But then a crematorium was built in town and started taking business from the funeral home, and even worse, started doing living funerals themselves! Dolly thought there was something strange about Clem, the man who owned the crematorium, and it was up to her to figure out what was really going on. A mystery with small-town charm, this book is about family, funerals and forgiveness.
Klise’s writing has a folksy cadence to it here that echoes the sounds and feeling of a small town. There are wonderful transcendent moments where the main character realizes something and Klise writes it with such clarity and perfect pitch. The conversations between characters feel real and true, giving the book a strong foundation to put a mystery upon. It is also a very funny book, thanks to Dolly’s wry humor.
Klise has created a small town in this novel that makes the perfect setting for a mystery. The town and the people who live there are more than a backdrop for the story, they are a real community. The most fascinating characters are those related to Dolly. Each of them shows how to deal with life and tragedy in a different way. They are subtle and tangible reminders of what grief can become.
Dolly is a marvelous character who strives to be good, but is still alive because she was grounded for going fishing without permission. She is a girl who fishes, does hair, hates dolls, and never quite manages to obey the rules. In other words, she’s a delight.
Highly recommended, this book would make a wonderful class read-a-loud. Where it sings is in the relationships it shows, the laughter it provides, and the recovery from loss it allows us to witness. Appropriate for ages 9-12.
Klise’s writing has a folksy cadence to it here that echoes the sounds and feeling of a small town. There are wonderful transcendent moments where the main character realizes something and Klise writes it with such clarity and perfect pitch. The conversations between characters feel real and true, giving the book a strong foundation to put a mystery upon. It is also a very funny book, thanks to Dolly’s wry humor.
Klise has created a small town in this novel that makes the perfect setting for a mystery. The town and the people who live there are more than a backdrop for the story, they are a real community. The most fascinating characters are those related to Dolly. Each of them shows how to deal with life and tragedy in a different way. They are subtle and tangible reminders of what grief can become.
Dolly is a marvelous character who strives to be good, but is still alive because she was grounded for going fishing without permission. She is a girl who fishes, does hair, hates dolls, and never quite manages to obey the rules. In other words, she’s a delight.
Highly recommended, this book would make a wonderful class read-a-loud. Where it sings is in the relationships it shows, the laughter it provides, and the recovery from loss it allows us to witness. Appropriate for ages 9-12.