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A review by thelibraryofethos
I Have No Secrets by Penny Joelson
3.0
A very interesting book indeed. But still not above a 3 star rating for me.
This book's plot is irresistible. Whenever I gave a brief summary of the book ( I'm reading a book right now about a girl with cerebral palsy who knows who did a murder - but the thing is she can't move or speak ) people would nod, and make those little "Ooh!" noises of interest. Basically, this book has hit the jackpot on plot points.
But in my humble opinion, that doesn't make up for the writing entirely.
Let me clarify that: There is absolutely nothing wrong with the writing. Everything is correct.
It's just all so... simple.
If you are the type of reader that watches for interesting quotes and expressions while you're reading anything, this book is not going to capture your mind or heart. It's all so dead easy and simple.
But now that my complaining is well out of the way, let's get on to the things that I did enjoy about this book.
I read this because of Book Clubs In Schools is running an event with the author to encourage reading for children across the UK. The ebook was only 0.99p for the whole month of February, so children could access the story. The author is doing a live Q&A session this month for all the children who read the book. The free resources available to aid discussion around allotted chapters for each week were fantastic. All these things have made me like the book and the author more.
There were so many more interesting discussion points in this story than I realised! But the kids absolutely loved the story. The mystery of the book kept our entire group guessing all the way through, and the guesses we made had us laughing our guts out. This book's simplicity actually makes it more accessible to so many young readers.
Okay fine, maybe I'll bump it up to 3.5 stars, but I'm still not rounding it up.
The themes in this story are definitely so important and I'm so pleased to see a book like this promoting a story with main characters with disabilities, foster parents/children, voices usually ignored having power and impact. I hope to see that this book and similar others will inspire a whole new generation of stories.
This book's plot is irresistible. Whenever I gave a brief summary of the book ( I'm reading a book right now about a girl with cerebral palsy who knows who did a murder - but the thing is she can't move or speak ) people would nod, and make those little "Ooh!" noises of interest. Basically, this book has hit the jackpot on plot points.
But in my humble opinion, that doesn't make up for the writing entirely.
Let me clarify that: There is absolutely nothing wrong with the writing. Everything is correct.
It's just all so... simple.
If you are the type of reader that watches for interesting quotes and expressions while you're reading anything, this book is not going to capture your mind or heart. It's all so dead easy and simple.
But now that my complaining is well out of the way, let's get on to the things that I did enjoy about this book.
I read this because of Book Clubs In Schools is running an event with the author to encourage reading for children across the UK. The ebook was only 0.99p for the whole month of February, so children could access the story. The author is doing a live Q&A session this month for all the children who read the book. The free resources available to aid discussion around allotted chapters for each week were fantastic. All these things have made me like the book and the author more.
There were so many more interesting discussion points in this story than I realised! But the kids absolutely loved the story. The mystery of the book kept our entire group guessing all the way through, and the guesses we made had us laughing our guts out. This book's simplicity actually makes it more accessible to so many young readers.
Okay fine, maybe I'll bump it up to 3.5 stars, but I'm still not rounding it up.
The themes in this story are definitely so important and I'm so pleased to see a book like this promoting a story with main characters with disabilities, foster parents/children, voices usually ignored having power and impact. I hope to see that this book and similar others will inspire a whole new generation of stories.