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A review by emilyctrigg
The Impossible Destiny of Cutie Grackle by Shawn K. Stout
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me an advanced copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.
Cutie Grackle is an Appalachian girl who has had a tough hand dealt her way. She has no parents and lives with her uncle who isn't very responsible to say the least. We open with her being driven to the food pantry for her monthly allotment by a sympathetic woman who works at Cutie's school. Cutie is smart, responsible, courageous, and all the other characteristics you would want your middle schooler to be.
I loved the setting and ambiance of this story. I grew up in the foothills of Appalachia and I can say for sure that Shawn K Stout got the vernacular and setting absolutely perfect. I loved hearing Cutie saying "tarnation" and "murderation" and having full-on conversations with her "friend" the garden gnome.
The story is firmly magical realism-- a great amount of fantastical elements for the age group. I think a lot of kids 8+ would enjoy the magical bits and would also relate to the realistic parts like being financially/food poor and having trouble relating to the others around you.
Shawn K Stout really shines in the prose. Some of my favorites include: “What we find connects us to the past. It may be an ugly, shameful past, but we have the responsibility of owning up to to it so we can know better and then do better.”
and
“I wished I could undo it. But things couldn’t really be undone, could they?”
Where this book fell a bit flat for me was the pacing-- the beginning was good and then it dragged in the middle 50%. Things picked up when Cutie finally figured out the curse and what she needed to do, but I think some of the middle could have safely been cut. The ending was satisfactory, but I was hoping for a bit more of a happy ending than we got.
If your kids are sensitive to animal harm, I would cautiously recommend this book. There is some injury to crows, one crow is blind in one eye and that eye looks bad, someone shoots at crows at one point in the story.
Cutie Grackle is an Appalachian girl who has had a tough hand dealt her way. She has no parents and lives with her uncle who isn't very responsible to say the least. We open with her being driven to the food pantry for her monthly allotment by a sympathetic woman who works at Cutie's school. Cutie is smart, responsible, courageous, and all the other characteristics you would want your middle schooler to be.
I loved the setting and ambiance of this story. I grew up in the foothills of Appalachia and I can say for sure that Shawn K Stout got the vernacular and setting absolutely perfect. I loved hearing Cutie saying "tarnation" and "murderation" and having full-on conversations with her "friend" the garden gnome.
The story is firmly magical realism-- a great amount of fantastical elements for the age group. I think a lot of kids 8+ would enjoy the magical bits and would also relate to the realistic parts like being financially/food poor and having trouble relating to the others around you.
Shawn K Stout really shines in the prose. Some of my favorites include: “What we find connects us to the past. It may be an ugly, shameful past, but we have the responsibility of owning up to to it so we can know better and then do better.”
and
“I wished I could undo it. But things couldn’t really be undone, could they?”
Where this book fell a bit flat for me was the pacing-- the beginning was good and then it dragged in the middle 50%. Things picked up when Cutie finally figured out the curse and what she needed to do, but I think some of the middle could have safely been cut. The ending was satisfactory, but I was hoping for a bit more of a happy ending than we got.
If your kids are sensitive to animal harm, I would cautiously recommend this book. There is some injury to crows, one crow is blind in one eye and that eye looks bad, someone shoots at crows at one point in the story.