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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Greatly oversimplified, yes, but still a compelling read. I would have loved this as a teenager. As an adult I appreciated the humour. Taken from a free library and returned to same.
This is one of the 70s/80s classic kids' books I read because a girl in "The Baby-sitters Club" liked it. The basic plot, a teen finding her birth parents, lends itself well to a detective story that gives way to an emotionally complex, bittersweet ending. I ended up really enjoying it, despite a slow beginning.
This book has a number of YA in the 70s problems, notably stilted, clunky language and an impossibly beautiful, brilliant, introspective Mary Sue of a main character. When Natalie looked in the mirror and gazed upon her strikingly dark hair and blue eyes, I thought it was all over. But the book recovers once the mystery picks up and Natalie slowly puts together her birth mother's story. (Try to ignore the plot holes. They're not important.) The final third is genuinely moving. To the extent that there is cliche goofiness, it gives the story a sort of elemental, fairy-tale feel. I can see why this was a beloved book for generations of adopted kids and young birth moms.
Lois Lowry seriously improved through the 80s and 90s, but her quality shines through in the deftly handled emotional beats and her knack for creating lovable, offbeat families.
This book has a number of YA in the 70s problems, notably stilted, clunky language and an impossibly beautiful, brilliant, introspective Mary Sue of a main character. When Natalie looked in the mirror and gazed upon her strikingly dark hair and blue eyes, I thought it was all over. But the book recovers once the mystery picks up and Natalie slowly puts together her birth mother's story. (Try to ignore the plot holes. They're not important.) The final third is genuinely moving. To the extent that there is cliche goofiness, it gives the story a sort of elemental, fairy-tale feel. I can see why this was a beloved book for generations of adopted kids and young birth moms.
Lois Lowry seriously improved through the 80s and 90s, but her quality shines through in the deftly handled emotional beats and her knack for creating lovable, offbeat families.
A Lois Lowry book I hadn't read yet, so I read it. Interesting to read her earlier work. Some things didn't capture me as much (we get it, the protagonist is BEAUTIFUL and has AMAZING parents) but even so I really liked the protagonist and really loved her amazing parents and extraordinary grandma Tallie. In fact, her parents and Tallie were more interesting to me than some of the main storyline. I'd like a whole book about them, I think.
Read this several years ago, but I remember it being a good book.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I really enjoyed this book for what it was; a glimpse at the mores and life of another time. This was written around when I was born; adoption and families and society have changed a lot (though rural Maine doesn't appear to have). Anyway, I liked it a great deal, but most of its appeal was as a curiosity, and I don't know that I'd recommend it to a contemporary teen.
I first read this book as a teenager and I remember it being more emotionally engaging. It is still beautifully written and has engaging characters. But I've read so many powerful books since that it has lost most of its emotional punch.
Lowry, as always, is able to get into the nitty gritty things of life and explore them on whatever level you are willing to put into it. This book is about a girl who is looking for her birth mother. A simple story that discusses some of life's most meaningful questions whether you are adopted or not.
Lois Lowry is brilliant at writing good books for kids about emotionally difficult subjects. In this story, Natalie has always known that she was adopted, but she knows nothing about her birth parents or how they came to give her up. Her loving adoptive parents don't understand why this matters so much to her, but they want to support her choices so they make it possible for her to go on a journey of discovery. Along the way, she learns important lessons about when to hold on to people,and when to let them go. Some of the big what-if questions regarding the potential pitfalls of learning about birth parents are broached rather harshly, but Natalie feels ready to handle any trauma that might result from the search. Much of this story is about how she seeks the answers she needs, but it also deals with how she copes with the answers once she finds them.