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hezann73's review against another edition
4.0
Started off a little slow and I had trouble with the narration style at first. However, after a couple of chapters I was able to sink into this quiet story of friendship and family. Good for 4th-5th grade.
pussreboots's review against another edition
4.0
http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2015/comments_12/moonpenny_island.html
jayce's review against another edition
2.0
Originally posted here at In the Senter of it All
I decided to move to Moonpenny Island in the first chapter. It’s a sweet little island that seems perfect. And then reality sets in.
This book is all about how hard life can be. It’s a good book, but not one that you want to rush back into.
Genre: Realistic
AR level: 4.2
Grade appropriate: 4th and up
RATING BREAKDOWN:
Overall: 2/5
Creativity: 2/5-- Life on the island made this story different from others like it. But it’s very much like other stories about tough life events.
Characters: 4/5-- very real, not always perfect, not always likeable, but very real.
Engrossing: 2/5-- This was not an easy book for me to finish. I loved it at first, but after a while there are just too many things going wrong. It was not a place I wanted to go if I had the choice of what to read.
Writing: 4/5
Appeal to kids: 2/5-- I think it’ll be a hard sell…
Appropriate length to tell the story: 4/5
CONTENT:
Language: none
Sexuality: none
Violence: mild-- Sylvie accidentally gets pushed down the stairs when her dad and brother are fighting.
Drugs/Alcohol: mild-- Sylvie’s mother has a drinking problem.
I decided to move to Moonpenny Island in the first chapter. It’s a sweet little island that seems perfect. And then reality sets in.
This book is all about how hard life can be. It’s a good book, but not one that you want to rush back into.
Genre: Realistic
AR level: 4.2
Grade appropriate: 4th and up
RATING BREAKDOWN:
Overall: 2/5
Creativity: 2/5-- Life on the island made this story different from others like it. But it’s very much like other stories about tough life events.
Characters: 4/5-- very real, not always perfect, not always likeable, but very real.
Engrossing: 2/5-- This was not an easy book for me to finish. I loved it at first, but after a while there are just too many things going wrong. It was not a place I wanted to go if I had the choice of what to read.
Writing: 4/5
Appeal to kids: 2/5-- I think it’ll be a hard sell…
Appropriate length to tell the story: 4/5
CONTENT:
Language: none
Sexuality: none
Violence: mild-- Sylvie accidentally gets pushed down the stairs when her dad and brother are fighting.
Drugs/Alcohol: mild-- Sylvie’s mother has a drinking problem.
mrskatiefitz's review against another edition
5.0
This review also appears on my blog, Read-at-Home Mom.
Flor loves her life on Moonpenny Island and she adores her best friend Sylvie, so it comes as a terrible shock to her when all at once, Sylvie is sent to live with her aunt and attend school on the mainland, and Flor's mother suddenly leaves home, ostensibly to care for Flor's ailing grandmother, but also to have some time away from Flor's dad. Despite a new friendship with Jasper, the odd daughter of a scientist doing research on the island, Flor feels completely alone as she tries to look after Sylvie's delinquent older brother, as well as her own teenage sister and younger brother.
This beautifully written novel is already my pick for the 2016 Newbery Award. The characterizations, poetic descriptions, emotional situations, and coming of age plot line all contribute to an overall mesmerizing reading experience. Moonpenny Island becomes a real place almost instantly, and the reader eagerly follows Flor from moment to moment, empathizing with her pain at the changes her life is undergoing and rooting for her happiness, her safety, and a return of her sense of hope. Flor is perfectly believable - neither too mature, nor too naive - and her concerns, though not entirely her responsibility, weigh heavily on her in a very realistic way.
Some of the highlights of the story itself are the slowly revealed secret of why Sylvie is truly sent away, the truth about where Flor's sister Cecelia goes when she is not home, Jasper's matter-of-fact outlook on life, including her own missing arm, the incorporation of Anne of Green Gables, Charles Darwin, and the theme of sight and eyes into the plot, and the depiction of the island's unique one room school. Every thread and every scene takes the reader one step closer to the perfect conclusion, which satisfies the reader without patronizing Flor or her feelings.
Tricia Springstubb's other recent novels (What Happened on Fox Street and Mo Wren, Lost and Found) have been enjoyable, but this one is a true masterpiece. The writing style reminds me of books by other wonderful writers such as Susan Patron, Joanne Rocklin, Katherine Paterson, and Lynne Rae Perkins. There are so many small, salient moments that are just perfectly described. Each word is chosen with such care, and the details are delivered with such precision that you almost miss how brilliant they are. Springstubb demonstrates the full range of her writing abilities in telling this story, and yet nothing she writes ever feels showy or over-written.
These are just a few of the gorgeous lines I highlighted as I was reading. First, here is the moment where the youngest member of a family known to be "trashy" demonstrates her undying love for the father no one else respects;
Jocelyn Hawkins, lone kindergartener, skips across the grass. She taps her father with her golden wand, then slips her hand into his. Her smile says, You are the sun and I am a planet. Don't try and tell Jocelyn her father is a loser. (p. 45)
In this single line of description, Springstubb marks the passage of time in an interesting and artful way:
The sun's slipped a few notches, and when she stands up her shadow wears stilts. (p.55)
And finally, Flor's thoughts about Joe Hawkins's hair;
His curls are wild and thick, and this must be where the word ringlet comes from - slide your finger through one, and you'd be wearing a shiny band. (p.72)
Springstubb's insight into matters large and small make this book such a treat and the kind of story where readers can see little pieces of themselves. Kids who love realistic fiction will easily fall into the world of this book, and thanks to the excellent cover by Three Times Lucky illustrator Gilbert Ford, both boys and girls should be willing to pick it up and give it a try. I can't wait to see what wonderful accolades will befall this book this year - I sincerely hope they will be many.
Flor loves her life on Moonpenny Island and she adores her best friend Sylvie, so it comes as a terrible shock to her when all at once, Sylvie is sent to live with her aunt and attend school on the mainland, and Flor's mother suddenly leaves home, ostensibly to care for Flor's ailing grandmother, but also to have some time away from Flor's dad. Despite a new friendship with Jasper, the odd daughter of a scientist doing research on the island, Flor feels completely alone as she tries to look after Sylvie's delinquent older brother, as well as her own teenage sister and younger brother.
This beautifully written novel is already my pick for the 2016 Newbery Award. The characterizations, poetic descriptions, emotional situations, and coming of age plot line all contribute to an overall mesmerizing reading experience. Moonpenny Island becomes a real place almost instantly, and the reader eagerly follows Flor from moment to moment, empathizing with her pain at the changes her life is undergoing and rooting for her happiness, her safety, and a return of her sense of hope. Flor is perfectly believable - neither too mature, nor too naive - and her concerns, though not entirely her responsibility, weigh heavily on her in a very realistic way.
Some of the highlights of the story itself are the slowly revealed secret of why Sylvie is truly sent away, the truth about where Flor's sister Cecelia goes when she is not home, Jasper's matter-of-fact outlook on life, including her own missing arm, the incorporation of Anne of Green Gables, Charles Darwin, and the theme of sight and eyes into the plot, and the depiction of the island's unique one room school. Every thread and every scene takes the reader one step closer to the perfect conclusion, which satisfies the reader without patronizing Flor or her feelings.
Tricia Springstubb's other recent novels (What Happened on Fox Street and Mo Wren, Lost and Found) have been enjoyable, but this one is a true masterpiece. The writing style reminds me of books by other wonderful writers such as Susan Patron, Joanne Rocklin, Katherine Paterson, and Lynne Rae Perkins. There are so many small, salient moments that are just perfectly described. Each word is chosen with such care, and the details are delivered with such precision that you almost miss how brilliant they are. Springstubb demonstrates the full range of her writing abilities in telling this story, and yet nothing she writes ever feels showy or over-written.
These are just a few of the gorgeous lines I highlighted as I was reading. First, here is the moment where the youngest member of a family known to be "trashy" demonstrates her undying love for the father no one else respects;
Jocelyn Hawkins, lone kindergartener, skips across the grass. She taps her father with her golden wand, then slips her hand into his. Her smile says, You are the sun and I am a planet. Don't try and tell Jocelyn her father is a loser. (p. 45)
In this single line of description, Springstubb marks the passage of time in an interesting and artful way:
The sun's slipped a few notches, and when she stands up her shadow wears stilts. (p.55)
And finally, Flor's thoughts about Joe Hawkins's hair;
His curls are wild and thick, and this must be where the word ringlet comes from - slide your finger through one, and you'd be wearing a shiny band. (p.72)
Springstubb's insight into matters large and small make this book such a treat and the kind of story where readers can see little pieces of themselves. Kids who love realistic fiction will easily fall into the world of this book, and thanks to the excellent cover by Three Times Lucky illustrator Gilbert Ford, both boys and girls should be willing to pick it up and give it a try. I can't wait to see what wonderful accolades will befall this book this year - I sincerely hope they will be many.
thisgrrlreads's review against another edition
3.0
A sweet story about friendship and family on a small island with a nicely diverse cast of characters. Flor is relatable, and a young eleven year old who believes that your best friend will always stay with you. This is the year she learns that sometimes people leave her small island, things change and that's ok. There are some good themes here, including some evolution--brought in by the scientist father of Flor's new friend.
tashrow's review against another edition
5.0
The author of What Happened on Fox Street returns with a beautiful story set on a little island in a large lake. Flor loves her island home, loves being able to ride her bicycle everywhere, loves that her best friend is the only other person in her grade at school, and loves that she knows all of the people who live there year round. But things start to change that Flor has no way to control. Her best friend is sent off the island to attend a different school, leaving Flor the only person in sixth grade. Flor’s mother leaves to take care of her sick grandmother, and with her parents always fighting, maybe she won’t be back. Even her very responsible older sister is hiding something from Flor. Flor has to figure out how to live in this new island landscape where everything is changing around her. But in change there is also opportunity, perhaps a new friend (or two) and also seeing things for what they actually are.
Springstubb writes a love letter to her island setting. She imbues each bike ride of Flor’s with a beauty and a celebration of this small island and its nature. Her writing sparkles like sun on the water as she picks unique metaphors to show both her characters emotions and the setting. Here is one of my favorite examples: “Her heart’s a circus, with trapezes and tightropes and people shooting out of cannons but no nets – someone forgot the nets.” Springstubb also shows emotions rather than telling about them. Flor’s emotions come out in the way she digs her toes in sand, how she pedals her bicycle and through what she notices in the island itself.
Flor is a great young protagonist. She reads like an eleven year old, desperate to hold her family and friends together. She has a youthful and frenzied love of her island, something that readers can see may change in the future but it is her connection to this place that makes this book work so beautifully. She is fiercely protective of her siblings, throwing herself in to defend and protect them even as she proves that she has no understanding of teen love, something refreshing in a young protagonist.
Strong written, this book is beautiful, deep and rich just like its island setting. Appropriate for ages 9-12.
Springstubb writes a love letter to her island setting. She imbues each bike ride of Flor’s with a beauty and a celebration of this small island and its nature. Her writing sparkles like sun on the water as she picks unique metaphors to show both her characters emotions and the setting. Here is one of my favorite examples: “Her heart’s a circus, with trapezes and tightropes and people shooting out of cannons but no nets – someone forgot the nets.” Springstubb also shows emotions rather than telling about them. Flor’s emotions come out in the way she digs her toes in sand, how she pedals her bicycle and through what she notices in the island itself.
Flor is a great young protagonist. She reads like an eleven year old, desperate to hold her family and friends together. She has a youthful and frenzied love of her island, something that readers can see may change in the future but it is her connection to this place that makes this book work so beautifully. She is fiercely protective of her siblings, throwing herself in to defend and protect them even as she proves that she has no understanding of teen love, something refreshing in a young protagonist.
Strong written, this book is beautiful, deep and rich just like its island setting. Appropriate for ages 9-12.
bibliogirl's review against another edition
5.0
This is the kind of book I wish I could write. What wonderful characters. What a wonderful place.
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