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4.13 AVERAGE
4.13 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I enjoyed the verse element to this story. It kept it fast pace but also felt like the ramblings of the main character’s mind. Typical format would not have made as much sense.
Middle grade with Island Of The Blue Dolphins (O'Dell) & Hatchet (Paulsen) vibes. Wasn't on my radar at all until my daughter was telling me about it. Very good and written in verse.
This book immediately caught my eye when it was donated to my school library. I wasn't in a place to read it when it came, but each time I saw it circulating I remembered I wanted to read it. I was so excited to see it as a recommended prompt for the reading challenge I am doing this year.
This is a novel in verse about a girl named Maddie who wakes up after sneakily sleeping alone at her grandparent's empty apartment and discovers her entire town has been evacuated overnight and she is alone. Her only companion is her neighbor's rottweiler, George.
I was fascinated seeing how she managed to survive and her thought process. I loved her nod to libraries and books and how what she read helped her to survive. It was a satisfying read and a book I am going to enjoy suggesting to students, though many have managed to find it themselves already.
The 52 Book Club 2024 Reading Challenge #49 Set in a city starting with the letter "M"
This is a novel in verse about a girl named Maddie who wakes up after sneakily sleeping alone at her grandparent's empty apartment and discovers her entire town has been evacuated overnight and she is alone. Her only companion is her neighbor's rottweiler, George.
I was fascinated seeing how she managed to survive and her thought process. I loved her nod to libraries and books and how what she read helped her to survive. It was a satisfying read and a book I am going to enjoy suggesting to students, though many have managed to find it themselves already.
The 52 Book Club 2024 Reading Challenge #49 Set in a city starting with the letter "M"
This book is officially my 2nd favorite book. The ending where the mom and dad came back!!!! I was crying hard lol. Now if I can find a book that’s Poetry, LGBT AND survival, that would be BEYOND number 1. Definitely recommend this book!
I can see how this book would be absolutely captivating for a lot of kids. As an adult, I often found it boring and thought the resolution lacked depth. I did appreciate the inclusion of references to famous works of literature and poetry and the overall messages it conveyed about perseverance and love.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
TL;DR cool premise, good writing, the verse format works, but the ending was ridiculous and stupid. Save your time for something more worthwhile.
I picked up this book because it was part of an upcoming library family read. When I got it home and realized it’s written in (very loose) verse, I had some misgivings. Then, I thought I would love it. Then, I realized I didn’t.
As it turns out, the fact that it’s in verse is the one thing that saved Alone from being completely unbearable. It made the book into a quick read. It also worked because there’s only one character for most of the book. And I often didn’t even remember I was reading poems because it’s a modern free verse style, with no rhyme and no meter, so it read almost like sparse prose.
I had trouble figuring out what kind of story this is, and honestly I still don’t know. At first, I assumed it was a coming of age because it’s about a young girl on her own. What else can you do with that? But the character doesn’t really change at all throughout the book, at least not in any meaningful way, so I can’t even really claim that it’s a coming of age.
It’s certainly a story of survival, but that’s about it. Not much really happens. Lots of acts of nature - as in, every conceivable one. Tornados, flood, lightning, fire, infection, wild animals. I mean, the list of things that COULD happen was starting to dwindle by the end, which made it feel like “wait. Another natural disaster? Really?” So maybe it’s a story of girl vs nature, but really more like girl beat up by nature with no long term repercussions. She did see some people breaking in, but she didn’t interact with them so…. yeah. I’ll leave it there.
And why did it take her THREE YEARS of eating canned food to decide to plant a garden? There are a lot of open ends and plot holes and it started to feel like we were just working through a disorganized list of things that could happen to this character and they were never put into a logical order.
The biggest let down for me, though, was the ending. I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS. First of all, what little explanation we are given - “a massive land grab / unprecedented fraud” - makes NO SENSE. So there’s a land grab, by an unnamed person or entity, who then sits there and does nothing with the land they went to so much trouble over? No oil drilling? No mining? No building of industry? Really? They just decide to let it lie dormant? Maybe make a new National Park no one is allowed in? What. is. the. point. exactly?
Second, why did her parents take so long to come back? I understand there were “elections / new government,” but why would that hold them up? Are they such law abiding citizens and care so little for their daughter that they decided to wait for “conditions returning to normal” so they could appease the bureaucracy and do everything on the up-and-up once all the proper paperwork is filed? I don’t buy it. Any parents would be using some sketchy black market contacts or sneaking back on their own. They wouldn’t wait FOUR YEARS to take a government chopper back home and check to see if their kid is alive. Give me a break.
Anyway. The end was awful. The middle was ok. But why waste the time to have such a stupid ending. I do not recommend this book.
I picked up this book because it was part of an upcoming library family read. When I got it home and realized it’s written in (very loose) verse, I had some misgivings. Then, I thought I would love it. Then, I realized I didn’t.
As it turns out, the fact that it’s in verse is the one thing that saved Alone from being completely unbearable. It made the book into a quick read. It also worked because there’s only one character for most of the book. And I often didn’t even remember I was reading poems because it’s a modern free verse style, with no rhyme and no meter, so it read almost like sparse prose.
I had trouble figuring out what kind of story this is, and honestly I still don’t know. At first, I assumed it was a coming of age because it’s about a young girl on her own. What else can you do with that? But the character doesn’t really change at all throughout the book, at least not in any meaningful way, so I can’t even really claim that it’s a coming of age.
It’s certainly a story of survival, but that’s about it. Not much really happens. Lots of acts of nature - as in, every conceivable one. Tornados, flood, lightning, fire, infection, wild animals. I mean, the list of things that COULD happen was starting to dwindle by the end, which made it feel like “wait. Another natural disaster? Really?” So maybe it’s a story of girl vs nature, but really more like girl beat up by nature with no long term repercussions. She did see some people breaking in, but she didn’t interact with them so…. yeah. I’ll leave it there.
And why did it take her THREE YEARS of eating canned food to decide to plant a garden? There are a lot of open ends and plot holes and it started to feel like we were just working through a disorganized list of things that could happen to this character and they were never put into a logical order.
The biggest let down for me, though, was the ending. I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS. First of all, what little explanation we are given - “a massive land grab / unprecedented fraud” - makes NO SENSE. So there’s a land grab, by an unnamed person or entity, who then sits there and does nothing with the land they went to so much trouble over? No oil drilling? No mining? No building of industry? Really? They just decide to let it lie dormant? Maybe make a new National Park no one is allowed in? What. is. the. point. exactly?
Second, why did her parents take so long to come back? I understand there were “elections / new government,” but why would that hold them up? Are they such law abiding citizens and care so little for their daughter that they decided to wait for “conditions returning to normal” so they could appease the bureaucracy and do everything on the up-and-up once all the proper paperwork is filed? I don’t buy it. Any parents would be using some sketchy black market contacts or sneaking back on their own. They wouldn’t wait FOUR YEARS to take a government chopper back home and check to see if their kid is alive. Give me a break.
Anyway. The end was awful. The middle was ok. But why waste the time to have such a stupid ending. I do not recommend this book.
This book was unique: survival story, dysptopian, and novel in verse. Three things you don't usually see put together.
I really enjoyed this story of survival and the author's writing is beautiful. Being a novel in verse makes it a faster read, but the poetic devices the author uses builds the story and setting.
The biggest mark down, and which I almost even gave it 3 instead of 4, is that the conflict is not built up or even well explained. There has been an emergency evacuation of the entire western side of the US, but no reason is given. Is this taking place in the future, has a different government taken over? More explanation is really needed.
Some have marked this as a children's book, it is absolutely not. 6th or 7th grade and up only. I would not have this for 4th/5th graders due to a descriptive animal cruelty scene, among other details.
I really enjoyed this story of survival and the author's writing is beautiful. Being a novel in verse makes it a faster read, but the poetic devices the author uses builds the story and setting.
The biggest mark down, and which I almost even gave it 3 instead of 4, is that the conflict is not built up or even well explained. There has been an emergency evacuation of the entire western side of the US, but no reason is given. Is this taking place in the future, has a different government taken over? More explanation is really needed.
Some have marked this as a children's book, it is absolutely not. 6th or 7th grade and up only. I would not have this for 4th/5th graders due to a descriptive animal cruelty scene, among other details.