Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by lucyskyler
Notes from the Midnight Driver by Jordan Sonnenblick
1.0
This book is bad and the author should feel bad.
Ok, that's probably a bit strong, but I really do not like this book. It took me three months to read when it should have taken me at most about two days because I needed to take a break from how irritating it was (ok, that's an exaggeration because I just didn't have time with school, but I wasn't exactly compelled to keep on reading). Admittedly, I am older than the apparent target audience, who I would put as about 7 - 8 years old, but then I see some reviews list this book as 'teen humour'. Why? What makes the most sense to me is if this has some nostalgic value for readers my age that somehow made reading this book an enjoyable experience when you're older than 11.
In summary, the book is in not funny, despite its many blurbs claiming to be so, the characters are boring at best and irritating at worst, but always unsurprising and overly simple, and the message is incredibly patronising. I'm not really convinced the author has ever met an old person, let alone a sick person, but I will commend him for not turning this into a "Children's Introduction to the Holocaust" book, which is seemed to be heading towards sometimes. There are many and much better children's books with far more complicated messages than this one, so please choose them instead of this.
Ok, that's probably a bit strong, but I really do not like this book. It took me three months to read when it should have taken me at most about two days because I needed to take a break from how irritating it was (ok, that's an exaggeration because I just didn't have time with school, but I wasn't exactly compelled to keep on reading). Admittedly, I am older than the apparent target audience, who I would put as about 7 - 8 years old, but then I see some reviews list this book as 'teen humour'. Why? What makes the most sense to me is if this has some nostalgic value for readers my age that somehow made reading this book an enjoyable experience when you're older than 11.
In summary, the book is in not funny, despite its many blurbs claiming to be so, the characters are boring at best and irritating at worst, but always unsurprising and overly simple, and the message is incredibly patronising. I'm not really convinced the author has ever met an old person, let alone a sick person, but I will commend him for not turning this into a "Children's Introduction to the Holocaust" book, which is seemed to be heading towards sometimes. There are many and much better children's books with far more complicated messages than this one, so please choose them instead of this.