Scan barcode
A review by hellastrong
From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
3.0
This is part of my middle-grade book exploration, and the results have been pretty mixed. There are aspects of this book that I liked quite well and others that have me rolling my eyes.
On the one hand, this is a sweet story (pun intended), nicely written for its audience level. It takes on important issues and has a good cast of well-developed characters.
On the other hand, it makes me feel that much worse for all the kids whose parents are in jail for something they did, in fact, do. The narrative arc of this book basically says hey, if your parent IS a "criminal," well, they're a schmuck and you shouldn't have anything to do with them.
Also, yay /sarcasm/ another book bashing public defenders! Listen, Janae, do you *know* any PDs? You will not find a group of people anywhere who will work harder to help people fight the system. They, unlike you, don't care whether their clients are guilty. They're working their butts off to get the best outcomes they can. This book, like so many, completely and utterly misses the mark.
Last but not least -- does Zoe even *like* baking? While this improved in the last part of the book, for most of the book Zoe was just going through the motions while being distracted about other stuff. She wasn't excited about the opportunity to learn about working in a bakery; she was resentful that she was being asked to [gasp] actually prove herself as a worker before being given more responsibility. The horror! She was burning stuff and overworking fondant and honestly, I wouldn't have let her do more either. While I'm being nitpicky, what bakery is open on major holidays like the 4th of July or Labor Day -- and what bakery would suggest that a kid start an "internship" on the busiest day of the year?
It occurs to me now that my history as both a former public defender AND a former professional baker meant that I *really* shouldn't have read this book.
It's not terrible, just flawed.
On the one hand, this is a sweet story (pun intended), nicely written for its audience level. It takes on important issues and has a good cast of well-developed characters.
On the other hand, it makes me feel that much worse for all the kids whose parents are in jail for something they did, in fact, do. The narrative arc of this book basically says hey, if your parent IS a "criminal," well, they're a schmuck and you shouldn't have anything to do with them.
Also, yay /sarcasm/ another book bashing public defenders! Listen, Janae, do you *know* any PDs? You will not find a group of people anywhere who will work harder to help people fight the system. They, unlike you, don't care whether their clients are guilty. They're working their butts off to get the best outcomes they can. This book, like so many, completely and utterly misses the mark.
Last but not least -- does Zoe even *like* baking? While this improved in the last part of the book, for most of the book Zoe was just going through the motions while being distracted about other stuff. She wasn't excited about the opportunity to learn about working in a bakery; she was resentful that she was being asked to [gasp] actually prove herself as a worker before being given more responsibility. The horror! She was burning stuff and overworking fondant and honestly, I wouldn't have let her do more either. While I'm being nitpicky, what bakery is open on major holidays like the 4th of July or Labor Day -- and what bakery would suggest that a kid start an "internship" on the busiest day of the year?
It occurs to me now that my history as both a former public defender AND a former professional baker meant that I *really* shouldn't have read this book.
It's not terrible, just flawed.