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A review by sierra_color
Here in the Real World by Sara Pennypacker
5.0
This is one of those books that's so wonderful that I'm not quite sure on where to start my review. What should I talk about first? The writing? The setting? The characters?
Because I love all of that.
I feel that this is a fairly unique story-- a story about Ware, a kid who doesn't exactly fit in, and a girl, Jolene, who isn't exactly what people consider "normal" either, who find an old church, and decide to make it theirs. What I loved about this book was how the main characters built their own place of refuge from the world, and how they slowly grew to trust each other throughout the book. Their friendship feels natural, and doesn't feel forced at all. You can see how both are scared, hesitant, to make friends, but eventually, they both warm up to each other. Again, this was written wonderfully realistically-- they've had arguments, disagreements, points where they don't understand each other, and I really liked that. It wasn't a perfect friendship, but a genuine one.
Besides the friendship, I also loved how Ware, the main character, developed. He goes from wanting to be someone else, to finally realizing that he likes himself the way he is! Not only is that a wonderful lesson for children to learn, but it's just a wonderful lesson in general. I also liked Jolene's character development, she goes from mean and aggressive, to someone who's hard but soft on the inside. You also see how her home life affected her. I do wish we could've gotten more of her side of the story, and could've seen more of her life like I had for Ware, but other than that, I have no critiques of the book.
It's an amazing, well written read filled with heart, intrigue, and compassion. Pennypacker has an amazing way of writing-- immediately, I related to Ware. I couldn't help but be angry for him at the beginning of the story, and then, I grew to enjoy the church too, to enjoy the plants, to love the world as he saw it. The way Pennypacker manages to capture Ware's unique view of the world is amazing, and I can't help but love her writing. It's a mixture of descriptive, heart felt, and beautiful. I couldn't help but read this book within a few hours, because I couldn't put it down it was so good! I feel like this is a wonderful story, and honestly, it makes me interested to read more from Pennypacker. She has an amazing way of writing not only compelling characters and stories, but also ones that are realistic and heartfelt. The ending isn't exactly happy, and that's okay. It's real, but even if it is real, doesn't mean that it's bad. The book put it wonderfully--
"Because you're right. Bad stuff happens. But the real world is also all the things we do about the bad stuff. We're the real world, too."
This book is an amazing show of how the world can be bad sometimes, unfair, but it can also be good, but we have to do our best to make it a compassionate, good world. All in all, it's an amazing book that I enjoyed reading that has messages of self love, acceptance, and friendship.
Because I love all of that.
I feel that this is a fairly unique story-- a story about Ware, a kid who doesn't exactly fit in, and a girl, Jolene, who isn't exactly what people consider "normal" either, who find an old church, and decide to make it theirs. What I loved about this book was how the main characters built their own place of refuge from the world, and how they slowly grew to trust each other throughout the book. Their friendship feels natural, and doesn't feel forced at all. You can see how both are scared, hesitant, to make friends, but eventually, they both warm up to each other. Again, this was written wonderfully realistically-- they've had arguments, disagreements, points where they don't understand each other, and I really liked that. It wasn't a perfect friendship, but a genuine one.
Besides the friendship, I also loved how Ware, the main character, developed. He goes from wanting to be someone else, to finally realizing that he likes himself the way he is! Not only is that a wonderful lesson for children to learn, but it's just a wonderful lesson in general. I also liked Jolene's character development, she goes from mean and aggressive, to someone who's hard but soft on the inside. You also see how her home life affected her. I do wish we could've gotten more of her side of the story, and could've seen more of her life like I had for Ware, but other than that, I have no critiques of the book.
It's an amazing, well written read filled with heart, intrigue, and compassion. Pennypacker has an amazing way of writing-- immediately, I related to Ware. I couldn't help but be angry for him at the beginning of the story, and then, I grew to enjoy the church too, to enjoy the plants, to love the world as he saw it. The way Pennypacker manages to capture Ware's unique view of the world is amazing, and I can't help but love her writing. It's a mixture of descriptive, heart felt, and beautiful. I couldn't help but read this book within a few hours, because I couldn't put it down it was so good! I feel like this is a wonderful story, and honestly, it makes me interested to read more from Pennypacker. She has an amazing way of writing not only compelling characters and stories, but also ones that are realistic and heartfelt. The ending isn't exactly happy, and that's okay. It's real, but even if it is real, doesn't mean that it's bad. The book put it wonderfully--
"Because you're right. Bad stuff happens. But the real world is also all the things we do about the bad stuff. We're the real world, too."
This book is an amazing show of how the world can be bad sometimes, unfair, but it can also be good, but we have to do our best to make it a compassionate, good world. All in all, it's an amazing book that I enjoyed reading that has messages of self love, acceptance, and friendship.