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A review by bethanysbooknook21
Here in the Real World by Sara Pennypacker
3.0
The first five chapters are the worst. Parents are portrayed as out of touch and too busy to care, and the MC (who is only 11) defies them and lies to them throughout the book with zero repercussion. In a book for 8-12 year olds.
Religious terminology and references throughout that are just plain sacrilegious and heretical, not much to be expected on this front from a secular book.
The good parts - somehow the narrator captures that feeling of being lost in your own head, in your own world, that mental space of being an introvert and an over thinker. Explores a young artist discovering his passion and talent, using a camera to express feelings and to create.
In the end they do have to take responsibly for their actions (like making up for a huge water bill they caused), although they lie to the parents' face and never make up for it.
The best line of the book: "I don't want things to be magically what they're not. I want them to be what they could be. And somebody has to want that, or nothing bad will ever get better."
Religious terminology and references throughout that are just plain sacrilegious and heretical, not much to be expected on this front from a secular book.
The good parts - somehow the narrator captures that feeling of being lost in your own head, in your own world, that mental space of being an introvert and an over thinker. Explores a young artist discovering his passion and talent, using a camera to express feelings and to create.
In the end they do have to take responsibly for their actions (like making up for a huge water bill they caused), although they lie to the parents' face and never make up for it.
The best line of the book: "I don't want things to be magically what they're not. I want them to be what they could be. And somebody has to want that, or nothing bad will ever get better."