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mariahistryingtoread's review against another edition
2.0
Stuck would have been 3 stars if not for the abandoned plot points. Even then, a criticism that many plot points were abandoned does not necessarily warrant a star reduction. If it's 3 stars that's typically baked in and though something I find inexplicable (how hard is it to finish what you started?) I don't get up in arms enough to tip a book, particularly a kids' book, into the negatives over it.
The exception is when the plot point that is abandoned is essential enough that it becomes more than odd that the author disregarded it, it becomes a deterrent; a reason I'd actively warn people off the book not just a questionable decision I'd mention in passing.
It's immediately established that Austin's mother moves the two around on a whim often. Per Austin, she gets stressed out and starts to think things might be better somewhere else. Next thing he knows they're on the road.
There absolutely has to be a deeper reason to this. Barring extenuating circumstances, people don't just move several times a year when they have children. Children need and deserve stability. Austin is miserable, believing that he's incapable of making friends, and barely able to read. This just goes completely 100% unaddressed between the two of them.
Austin never tells his mom how he feels moving around all the time. His mom never gives an explanation as to why she does it.
Did Austin's dad die and she's avoiding her feelings by fleeing? Are they too poor to stay in one place consistently? Is she a free spirit type that simply hasn't realized the impact this lifestyle has on her son? It's anyone's guess.
Without this key aspect the whole book falls apart in the end. As I said before Austin barely can read. What kind of parent can't tell that their son can't read? Or rather, what kind of parent who apparently has no worries about financial security can't tell that their son can't read? If she's working all the time, that's one thing. Sometimes things slip through the cracks when you're going it alone. But, again while Austin certainly tells us she's busy a lot of what is actually shown on the page doesn't indicate a frazzled single mom too exhausted from trying to make ends meet to pay attention. Instead, she just seems largely apathetic and casually inconsiderate.
For example, Austin really wants to be a part of the Safety Squad (think hall monitors) next year. To do so he needs his mom to sign a form okaying it.
When he gets the form he tries to figure out the best way to give it to her so that she won't get overwhelmed by the idea of paperwork. In the past when schools have gotten 'pushy' - ie asking for basic forms that they require from everyone - she has imploded from the 'stress' and moved them. He leaves the form on the counter for her, afraid to ask her directly at the moment because she's working on the sink that doesn't work and he's scared that he'll be adding too much to her plate to ask right then.
Despite this form being bright orange and in plain sight, she ignores it for days. It's clearly a permission slip, clearly eye catching and clearly important to Austin. To our knowledge, she doesn't even glance at it.
Days later when Austin invites Bertie over Bertie - not knowing of Austin's issues navigating his relationship to his mom - excitedly brings it up and tells her that Austin will need to have it signed ASAP in order to be a Safety which now even if she did somehow ignore it before is an explicit invitation to look at this piece of paper. And yet she still ignores it. She doesn't even comment on what Bertie says - she chooses to pretend Bertie didn't say anything at all. Austin says he's unsure if she heard Bertie, but come on, they're right in front of each other in the same room. How could she not? Fiddling with the food she brought or whatever she was doing (I don't remember exactly, but trust me, it wasn't that serious) could not be /that/ consuming.
When I read Moonflower Moon's mom absolutely made some mistakes. It was painful for Moon, and it doesn’t take away the pain that she inflicted, but their mom also was trying her best. She didn’t know how to handle the depth of Moon’s despair because she’s only human. Still it was abundantly obvious that their mom did loved them and that part of the problem between the two was that Moon's depression was twisting their cognitive reasoning to view even the good things through an uncharitable lens.
Stuck doesn’t even have that going on. Austin isn’t projecting his feelings onto his mom or in any way presented as an unreliable narrator. His mom just is a bad mom, point blank. And I’m given no reason to empathize or give her the benefit of the doubt. The author treats it like his mother is a meat eater and Austin is newly vegan and his mom isn’t being supportive; as if her inability to stay in one place is an insignificant character attribute that can be chalked up to growing pains in their parent-child dynamic.
It ruins the ending because where Austin sees his mother bringing the safety permission sheet to school for him as a sign that she’s going to put down roots, there is no evidence on-page to suggest she has the fortitude to make such a decision at this juncture. Particularly when none of the things that Austin has said are triggers for her have happened yet - it’s easy to say you’ll stay when things are going well. On top of that, we don’t even know how long they normally stay in one place. Is it really that big a deal to stay three months - in the summer - if they normally stay three months anyways? She literally ripped him out of his previous school to put him in his new one when there were like three weeks left. I don’t think that kind of person will care about taking him out a week into the new school year the following September.
She never even learns he can’t read that well. His teacher takes notice and gets him into a special program at school all without her needing to lift a finger. He never shares how hard reading has been for him for so long. She’s a placeholder to say Austin has a mom. It doesn’t feel at all like Swender ever considered the fact that by virtue of the premise she’s chosen his mother has to be a developed part of it; Austin’s emotional issues, fear of forming intimate bonds, and functional illiteracy are going to be a direct result of everything she does because he’s only 10 years old.
It totally misses the mark at its core because how am I expected to believe that Austin’s life is on the uptick now when nothing has changed for him. His mother has made no promises. He has not learned to speak up for himself. He doesn’t stop walking on eggshells to avoid upsetting his mom. Worse yet, his mother still doesn't even realize the harm she's causing by making him so beholden to her moods.
There’s a plot point about a kid that is some brand of neurodivergent - never confirmed what is going on specifically, he just has a lot of overlap for a variety of things - named Dee that is not sufficiently resolved. Austin thinks he’s trying to bully him and Bertie, but he finds out that Dee is only trying to connect. The book ends without him explaining the miscommunication to Dee or Bertie or the three of them coming to some kind of accord. It was simply left hanging.
The best way to describe Stuck is unfinished. It feels like halfway through the page count was cut by 50 pages. It's an otherwise sweet read about letting people in that is grievously marred by its chopped storylines.
The exception is when the plot point that is abandoned is essential enough that it becomes more than odd that the author disregarded it, it becomes a deterrent; a reason I'd actively warn people off the book not just a questionable decision I'd mention in passing.
It's immediately established that Austin's mother moves the two around on a whim often. Per Austin, she gets stressed out and starts to think things might be better somewhere else. Next thing he knows they're on the road.
There absolutely has to be a deeper reason to this. Barring extenuating circumstances, people don't just move several times a year when they have children. Children need and deserve stability. Austin is miserable, believing that he's incapable of making friends, and barely able to read. This just goes completely 100% unaddressed between the two of them.
Austin never tells his mom how he feels moving around all the time. His mom never gives an explanation as to why she does it.
Did Austin's dad die and she's avoiding her feelings by fleeing? Are they too poor to stay in one place consistently? Is she a free spirit type that simply hasn't realized the impact this lifestyle has on her son? It's anyone's guess.
Without this key aspect the whole book falls apart in the end. As I said before Austin barely can read. What kind of parent can't tell that their son can't read? Or rather, what kind of parent who apparently has no worries about financial security can't tell that their son can't read? If she's working all the time, that's one thing. Sometimes things slip through the cracks when you're going it alone. But, again while Austin certainly tells us she's busy a lot of what is actually shown on the page doesn't indicate a frazzled single mom too exhausted from trying to make ends meet to pay attention. Instead, she just seems largely apathetic and casually inconsiderate.
For example, Austin really wants to be a part of the Safety Squad (think hall monitors) next year. To do so he needs his mom to sign a form okaying it.
When he gets the form he tries to figure out the best way to give it to her so that she won't get overwhelmed by the idea of paperwork. In the past when schools have gotten 'pushy' - ie asking for basic forms that they require from everyone - she has imploded from the 'stress' and moved them. He leaves the form on the counter for her, afraid to ask her directly at the moment because she's working on the sink that doesn't work and he's scared that he'll be adding too much to her plate to ask right then.
Despite this form being bright orange and in plain sight, she ignores it for days. It's clearly a permission slip, clearly eye catching and clearly important to Austin. To our knowledge, she doesn't even glance at it.
Days later when Austin invites Bertie over Bertie - not knowing of Austin's issues navigating his relationship to his mom - excitedly brings it up and tells her that Austin will need to have it signed ASAP in order to be a Safety which now even if she did somehow ignore it before is an explicit invitation to look at this piece of paper. And yet she still ignores it. She doesn't even comment on what Bertie says - she chooses to pretend Bertie didn't say anything at all. Austin says he's unsure if she heard Bertie, but come on, they're right in front of each other in the same room. How could she not? Fiddling with the food she brought or whatever she was doing (I don't remember exactly, but trust me, it wasn't that serious) could not be /that/ consuming.
When I read Moonflower Moon's mom absolutely made some mistakes. It was painful for Moon, and it doesn’t take away the pain that she inflicted, but their mom also was trying her best. She didn’t know how to handle the depth of Moon’s despair because she’s only human. Still it was abundantly obvious that their mom did loved them and that part of the problem between the two was that Moon's depression was twisting their cognitive reasoning to view even the good things through an uncharitable lens.
Stuck doesn’t even have that going on. Austin isn’t projecting his feelings onto his mom or in any way presented as an unreliable narrator. His mom just is a bad mom, point blank. And I’m given no reason to empathize or give her the benefit of the doubt. The author treats it like his mother is a meat eater and Austin is newly vegan and his mom isn’t being supportive; as if her inability to stay in one place is an insignificant character attribute that can be chalked up to growing pains in their parent-child dynamic.
It ruins the ending because where Austin sees his mother bringing the safety permission sheet to school for him as a sign that she’s going to put down roots, there is no evidence on-page to suggest she has the fortitude to make such a decision at this juncture. Particularly when none of the things that Austin has said are triggers for her have happened yet - it’s easy to say you’ll stay when things are going well. On top of that, we don’t even know how long they normally stay in one place. Is it really that big a deal to stay three months - in the summer - if they normally stay three months anyways? She literally ripped him out of his previous school to put him in his new one when there were like three weeks left. I don’t think that kind of person will care about taking him out a week into the new school year the following September.
She never even learns he can’t read that well. His teacher takes notice and gets him into a special program at school all without her needing to lift a finger. He never shares how hard reading has been for him for so long. She’s a placeholder to say Austin has a mom. It doesn’t feel at all like Swender ever considered the fact that by virtue of the premise she’s chosen his mother has to be a developed part of it; Austin’s emotional issues, fear of forming intimate bonds, and functional illiteracy are going to be a direct result of everything she does because he’s only 10 years old.
It totally misses the mark at its core because how am I expected to believe that Austin’s life is on the uptick now when nothing has changed for him. His mother has made no promises. He has not learned to speak up for himself. He doesn’t stop walking on eggshells to avoid upsetting his mom. Worse yet, his mother still doesn't even realize the harm she's causing by making him so beholden to her moods.
There’s a plot point about a kid that is some brand of neurodivergent - never confirmed what is going on specifically, he just has a lot of overlap for a variety of things - named Dee that is not sufficiently resolved. Austin thinks he’s trying to bully him and Bertie, but he finds out that Dee is only trying to connect. The book ends without him explaining the miscommunication to Dee or Bertie or the three of them coming to some kind of accord. It was simply left hanging.
The best way to describe Stuck is unfinished. It feels like halfway through the page count was cut by 50 pages. It's an otherwise sweet read about letting people in that is grievously marred by its chopped storylines.
kxc319's review against another edition
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
carolineinthelibrary's review against another edition
5.0
I thought Stuck was a really great story about how difficult it can be to have a learning disability and not really know that it's different from the way everyone else is. A lot of reviews complained that the author never names Austin or Dee's disabilities, but I don't think the book needed that. Austin lives with what we can assume is dyslexia, but like many neurodiverse kids, we don't know we're neurodiverse until we find out the way we live is different from other people. When Austin is being evaluated by Ms. B, we see that he thinks all kids have trouble reading new words or get tired reading. Austin doesn't need his disability to be named to know he struggles.
I related so deeply to this book. Being diagnosed with ADHD as an adult forced me to look back on my time in school and think "that's why that was tough" but it was never caught because like Austin, I worked double time to mask my symptoms. It's refreshing to read a book for kids that might touch on that and help kids realize there are grown ups (and even great kids like Bertie!) who can help.
I related so deeply to this book. Being diagnosed with ADHD as an adult forced me to look back on my time in school and think "that's why that was tough" but it was never caught because like Austin, I worked double time to mask my symptoms. It's refreshing to read a book for kids that might touch on that and help kids realize there are grown ups (and even great kids like Bertie!) who can help.
libreroaming's review
3.0
Austin is 4th grade protagonist who has unspecified reading difficulties, and spends all his time devising ways to hide his struggles. The way Austin dealt with Dee, who is initially shown as an antagonist but ends up being a misunderstood child who was trying to befriend him with different social skills, is another nuance that shows the book's primary focus on humanizing and validating kids who may not be neurotypical in their learning. The downside is it leaves a lot of other plots left undefined, including Bertie's feeling bullied by Dee (that misunderstanding is never addressed on page) and whatever mood issues Austin's mom has that creates the need for them to frequently move.
The book is very short, so it seems designed to be read for kids who aren't excited about longer stories. Best for early middle grade or advanced and empathetic 3rd grade readers.
The book is very short, so it seems designed to be read for kids who aren't excited about longer stories. Best for early middle grade or advanced and empathetic 3rd grade readers.
rebeshelton's review against another edition
4.0
So far, this is my vote for SC book award. A really heartwarming story about finding friendship in the most unexpected places. I loved it.
sarahreadsthings's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
ebonfanti30's review against another edition
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
sandylovesbooks's review
4.0
Oh this was very cute. I was going to give it 3 stars because most of the beginning was a bit slow. But by the end I was really enjoying it. Poor Austin, he has a problem. It isn't said but I think he is dyslexic. And his mom, I think she is depressed. A good book for older juveniles to read.
hrmason's review against another edition
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
keanym's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0