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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
I'd give this book 3 1/2 stars if that were an option. I enjoyed it very much although I did have a bit of trouble keeping characters straight until the end.
This British book is about 10 year old Grace and her summer spent trying to solve the mystery of the neighbor who has gone missing. Like any neighborhood, there is a cast of characters, wildly incorrect stories told & retold and people just trying to get through life. Grace spends her summer trying to find god in the hopes of finding the missing neighbor (although I still didn't connect the finding god with finding the missing neighbor).
What bothered me about this book was the ending. I didn't get it at all. How did it just end like it did? Didn't make any sense. I feel like I missed something major.
This British book is about 10 year old Grace and her summer spent trying to solve the mystery of the neighbor who has gone missing. Like any neighborhood, there is a cast of characters, wildly incorrect stories told & retold and people just trying to get through life. Grace spends her summer trying to find god in the hopes of finding the missing neighbor (although I still didn't connect the finding god with finding the missing neighbor).
What bothered me about this book was the ending. I didn't get it at all. How did it just end like it did? Didn't make any sense. I feel like I missed something major.
I found this, to my delight, in an independent bookstore in paperback. It is the perfect weekend read about a small suburban community and their secrets. Two observant ten year old girls, Grace and Tillie, go searching for God when a neighbor disappears, what they see and learn about their neighbors is disquieting to say the least.
This was a wonderful story full of inspiring messages. It really brings to light the way people treat one another.. Although I enjoyed this book, I felt a lot of loose ends were not tied up. That left me feeling slightly disappointed. I loved the child's perspective and the realistic characters in this book.
Potential lost. Very disappointed especially in the ending.
Gossip, secrets, nosy neighbours, ruffians, evidence of a crime scene - all of these are mixed together and revealed in reverse chronology to create a detective story even a 10 year old could resolve, if it had been told the other way around.
Mrs. Creasy is missing and all the misfits of The Avenue cannot seem to put their prejudices and quirky behaviours aside long enough to piece together the truth. Although everyone seems to know everyone else's histories and secrets, the truth is too wrapped up in poor decisions that incriminate each character. It is a fun, little mystery except that the gossip and speculation have very real effects on some of the neighbours. I am quite glad that I do not live on The Avenue!
Delightful but hard-hitting, if you really think on it.
Mrs. Creasy is missing and all the misfits of The Avenue cannot seem to put their prejudices and quirky behaviours aside long enough to piece together the truth. Although everyone seems to know everyone else's histories and secrets, the truth is too wrapped up in poor decisions that incriminate each character. It is a fun, little mystery except that the gossip and speculation have very real effects on some of the neighbours. I am quite glad that I do not live on The Avenue!
Delightful but hard-hitting, if you really think on it.
A book that took me back to my childhood in the 1970's. Written mainly from the child's perspective, it brings back the innocence of youth. Only towards the end did I get a little bored, but all in all a delightful story, and I would recommend it.
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
The plot of "The Trouble with Goats and Sheep" centres around the light-hearted and comical mission of two children, Grace and Tilly, who are attempting to solve the mystery of their neighbour's disappearance and to literally "find God" somewhere on their street.
But the joy of reading the book comes through as subtle humour, when Grace's naive questions and misinterpretations of religion and social norms reveal ironies about family relationships and communities in the book that often come much closer to 'the truth' than the adult characters are comfortable with.
In this way, the book reminded me of another literary mystery voiced by a child to a similar effect, "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime." But, "The Trouble with Goats and Sheep" switches between child and adult perspectives and has a much heavier thematic focus on neighbourhood and family relationships and what it means to be a "good" person (sometimes it's not as easy as it looks to separate the "goats" from the "sheep"!).
Overall, the characters and their relationships were interesting, the mystery held my attention, and the thematic explorations were interesting and insightful!
But the joy of reading the book comes through as subtle humour, when Grace's naive questions and misinterpretations of religion and social norms reveal ironies about family relationships and communities in the book that often come much closer to 'the truth' than the adult characters are comfortable with.
In this way, the book reminded me of another literary mystery voiced by a child to a similar effect, "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime." But, "The Trouble with Goats and Sheep" switches between child and adult perspectives and has a much heavier thematic focus on neighbourhood and family relationships and what it means to be a "good" person (sometimes it's not as easy as it looks to separate the "goats" from the "sheep"!).
Overall, the characters and their relationships were interesting, the mystery held my attention, and the thematic explorations were interesting and insightful!
I thought this was a very good novel. I thought it had a poetic flow to it. The characters are good, though I did get a bit muddled with some of the characters (who was who). Its quite a vivid portrayal of family life in Britain in the 70s (during the record summer heatwave of 1976, although it also goes back in time to the 60s at times), tackling multiculturalism, fears about people deemed not 'quite right', local gossip/suspicions following certain events that happened in the local community a few years prior. There are various secrets held by people in the community, there are some plot twists and it covers themes such as identity and adolescence, religion (including miracles) and fate.
I liked the writing - I found the chapters to be mostly fairly short and the format/layout made it quite readable. I enjoyed reading it - it felt like quite a challenge as its over 400 pages long and I tend to prefer to stick to books that are about 350 pages or less but I managed to read this book in 3 days, while on holiday. I reckon this is a quite easy book to dip in and out of - the chapters/sections are fairly short (10-15 pages tops or thereabouts on average, going by what I remember), although once or twice I found myself feeling so engrossed and intrigued by the plot, that I didn't want to put the book down when I'd planned as I just had to read on to find out what would happen.
If I had to categorise this (genre wise), I'd say its a mystery (not a mystery in terms of what it is but moreso that its primarily a mystery/crime story, of course!).
I thought that the ending was both apt but also a little unclear - it leaves the reader on a bit of a cliffhanger. I suppose its one of those ones where your to 'fill in the dots' as it were. All in all, I very much enjoyed reading this and I look forward to hopefully reading more from Joanna Cannon in the future.
I liked the writing - I found the chapters to be mostly fairly short and the format/layout made it quite readable. I enjoyed reading it - it felt like quite a challenge as its over 400 pages long and I tend to prefer to stick to books that are about 350 pages or less but I managed to read this book in 3 days, while on holiday. I reckon this is a quite easy book to dip in and out of - the chapters/sections are fairly short (10-15 pages tops or thereabouts on average, going by what I remember), although once or twice I found myself feeling so engrossed and intrigued by the plot, that I didn't want to put the book down when I'd planned as I just had to read on to find out what would happen.
If I had to categorise this (genre wise), I'd say its a mystery (not a mystery in terms of what it is but moreso that its primarily a mystery/crime story, of course!).
I thought that the ending was both apt but also a little unclear - it leaves the reader on a bit of a cliffhanger. I suppose its one of those ones where your to 'fill in the dots' as it were. All in all, I very much enjoyed reading this and I look forward to hopefully reading more from Joanna Cannon in the future.
Enthralled for the first half and then something marvellous fell apart :/