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mybookishdelights 's review for:
Race to the Sun
by Rebecca Roanhorse
I grew up in Southern Arizona and when I was little I would catch and play with horned toads (we called them horny toads). I freaking loved them and I am not a lizard girl at all. I would hold them and pet them and then let them go (sadly, of course, as I always wanted one as a pet). Every time I see or hear about one nowadays, I get so happy. So imagine my happiness level when a character in this book is an actual horned toad who is helping our hero along in her story. It really bumped this book up to another level for me personally.
The area I lived in was influenced by our local indigenous tribe Tohono O'Odham with food and the items they made and sold. My memories of them were always fond ones, as they will be when you're looking through a childish lens, and are mainly centered around food. I have no idea what the politics were for these people or how they were treated by adults in our community. I just know they had an influence in our area... well at least they did back then (I don't live there anymore). I would have loved this book as a kid and reading it now had a certain level of comfort and a bit of homesickness attached to it.
I can see how important this book must be for indigenous children. The introduction from Rick Riordan basically states that. He was asked many times by Native American children to put them in one of his stories. He used his power for good and understood that this needed to be an own voices take on the mythology of this culture and approached this author. It's heartwarming.(Disclaimer: I am a big softie for people who go out of their way for children.) A story like this, where the author was approached to write a middle grade book when her other books are adult fiction (as opposed to her already having a story and going to him), could have gone wrong and felt forced. Luckily, it didn't.
This was a fun quest adventure story that actually made me laugh out loud a couple times even though I am definitely not the intended audience. I loved the mythology and I loved the characters. The main character managed to have development in such a short amount of pages. The writing was really good although it did feel like things moved along a little too quickly in some parts of the story. The author did, however, paint a beautiful picture and tell an entertaining story. I enjoyed her brother and her best friend, but I'd be lying if I said my favorite wasn't Mr. Yazzie, the horned toad, for reasons stated above. It's hard to compete with my love for these little lizard toads.
I would definitely recommend this book for probably 8-12 year olds. The main character is 12, but this feels a bit on the younger side of the middle grade level. I will recommend this to my own 12 year old, but I'm not sure if she'll want to because she's already reading YA books. However, she has loved the other books in the Rick Riordan Presents series, so maybe not. I do recommend this to all ages though if you love middle grade.
CAWPILE Score: 8.57
The area I lived in was influenced by our local indigenous tribe Tohono O'Odham with food and the items they made and sold. My memories of them were always fond ones, as they will be when you're looking through a childish lens, and are mainly centered around food. I have no idea what the politics were for these people or how they were treated by adults in our community. I just know they had an influence in our area... well at least they did back then (I don't live there anymore). I would have loved this book as a kid and reading it now had a certain level of comfort and a bit of homesickness attached to it.
I can see how important this book must be for indigenous children. The introduction from Rick Riordan basically states that. He was asked many times by Native American children to put them in one of his stories. He used his power for good and understood that this needed to be an own voices take on the mythology of this culture and approached this author. It's heartwarming.(Disclaimer: I am a big softie for people who go out of their way for children.) A story like this, where the author was approached to write a middle grade book when her other books are adult fiction (as opposed to her already having a story and going to him), could have gone wrong and felt forced. Luckily, it didn't.
This was a fun quest adventure story that actually made me laugh out loud a couple times even though I am definitely not the intended audience. I loved the mythology and I loved the characters. The main character managed to have development in such a short amount of pages. The writing was really good although it did feel like things moved along a little too quickly in some parts of the story. The author did, however, paint a beautiful picture and tell an entertaining story. I enjoyed her brother and her best friend, but I'd be lying if I said my favorite wasn't Mr. Yazzie, the horned toad, for reasons stated above. It's hard to compete with my love for these little lizard toads.
I would definitely recommend this book for probably 8-12 year olds. The main character is 12, but this feels a bit on the younger side of the middle grade level. I will recommend this to my own 12 year old, but I'm not sure if she'll want to because she's already reading YA books. However, she has loved the other books in the Rick Riordan Presents series, so maybe not. I do recommend this to all ages though if you love middle grade.
CAWPILE Score: 8.57