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bgprincipessa's review against another edition
4.0
I was so excited to re-read this book. Someone gave it to me when I was in junior high (2002ish, probably, when it was new). It popped into my mind about a year ago and for the longest time I could not remember what it was called and couldn't find my old copy. Finally someone on Goodreads solved it for me - look at this amazingness with such little and incorrect information that I gave, ha.
I can definitely see why I loved this book so much. I identified strongly with a couple of the characters as a tween, and still some today. It tells the story of a town deciding whether to change its name through the eyes of high schoolers, each chapter in a different POV. There is so much going on in this book! Issues that are still so important to me today including race, gender, sexuality, income inequality, social justice, privilege, and so on. It's not surprising that this book stuck with me, because those were not themes I saw in a lot of the YA books I read at that age. I'm so happy YA has expanded since then.
There are definitely some places in which this feels too much like an "issues" book - surrounding race and sexuality, in particular - that have maybe not aged super well, but it was still strong overall. The one thing that definitely rubbed me the wrong way was the conversation around one character's coming out - it felt like a bit too much emphasis was placed on how it made those around him feel, instead of how it felt to him.
I can definitely see why I loved this book so much. I identified strongly with a couple of the characters as a tween, and still some today. It tells the story of a town deciding whether to change its name through the eyes of high schoolers, each chapter in a different POV. There is so much going on in this book! Issues that are still so important to me today including race, gender, sexuality, income inequality, social justice, privilege, and so on. It's not surprising that this book stuck with me, because those were not themes I saw in a lot of the YA books I read at that age. I'm so happy YA has expanded since then.
There are definitely some places in which this feels too much like an "issues" book - surrounding race and sexuality, in particular - that have maybe not aged super well, but it was still strong overall. The one thing that definitely rubbed me the wrong way was the conversation around one character's coming out - it felt like a bit too much emphasis was placed on how it made those around him feel, instead of how it felt to him.
bgprincipessa's review
4.0
I was so excited to re-read this book. Someone gave it to me when I was in junior high (2002ish, probably, when it was new). It popped into my mind about a year ago and for the longest time I could not remember what it was called and couldn't find my old copy. Finally someone on Goodreads solved it for me - look at this amazingness with such little and incorrect information that I gave, ha.
I can definitely see why I loved this book so much. I identified strongly with a couple of the characters as a tween, and still some today. It tells the story of a town deciding whether to change its name through the eyes of high schoolers, each chapter in a different POV. There is so much going on in this book! Issues that are still so important to me today including race, gender, sexuality, income inequality, social justice, privilege, and so on. It's not surprising that this book stuck with me, because those were not themes I saw in a lot of the YA books I read at that age. I'm so happy YA has expanded since then.
There are definitely some places in which this feels too much like an "issues" book - surrounding race and sexuality, in particular - that have maybe not aged super well, but it was still strong overall. The one thing that definitely rubbed me the wrong way was the conversation around one character's coming out - it felt like a bit too much emphasis was placed on how it made those around him feel, instead of how it felt to him.
I can definitely see why I loved this book so much. I identified strongly with a couple of the characters as a tween, and still some today. It tells the story of a town deciding whether to change its name through the eyes of high schoolers, each chapter in a different POV. There is so much going on in this book! Issues that are still so important to me today including race, gender, sexuality, income inequality, social justice, privilege, and so on. It's not surprising that this book stuck with me, because those were not themes I saw in a lot of the YA books I read at that age. I'm so happy YA has expanded since then.
There are definitely some places in which this feels too much like an "issues" book - surrounding race and sexuality, in particular - that have maybe not aged super well, but it was still strong overall. The one thing that definitely rubbed me the wrong way was the conversation around one character's coming out - it felt like a bit too much emphasis was placed on how it made those around him feel, instead of how it felt to him.
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