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A review by n_g_reader
The Year I Flew Away by Marie Arnold
3.0
The story of this book was so compelling and provides a great way for readers to understand the importance of diversity, especially for an individual (the importance of heritage languages and family). It's a great way to talk about assimilation and how we treat and value immigrants and why people might do or say the things they do. It's also really great for understanding Haitian culture and storytelling.
However, this clearly read as a debut novel. There were elements that were not very well explained (how can Rocky talk to literally everyone?) and the time element was jumpy (in one point, I had no idea if we were remembering something or if this was the present day and at another point it jumped from the present day to three months later with no good reason or transition). For that reason, I would put this as more older elementary , about 4th -5th grade readers, because I feel like the tone was far more juvenile than a middle school reader would enjoy. I would say younger middle school readers might enjoy this, but overall, it gave a more older elementary vibe than a middle school one.
contained no cursing or romance, did contain magic and good and bad witches and family disappearing (they come back tho)
However, this clearly read as a debut novel. There were elements that were not very well explained (how can Rocky talk to literally everyone?) and the time element was jumpy (in one point, I had no idea if we were remembering something or if this was the present day and at another point it jumped from the present day to three months later with no good reason or transition). For that reason, I would put this as more older elementary , about 4th -5th grade readers, because I feel like the tone was far more juvenile than a middle school reader would enjoy. I would say younger middle school readers might enjoy this, but overall, it gave a more older elementary vibe than a middle school one.