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A review by machadamia
Every School a Good School by Ng Ziqin
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Summary:
An opposition mp is appointed as the minister of education which is a big deal cause this never happens. She suggests an inter school exchange program and puts her daughter up for it. She and a student from a neighbourhood school swap places for a term and there are some ups and downsculminating in a flagrant waste of money and a fight at a pool place which was filmed and went viral on the internet.
I really quite enjoyed this book though it was rather slow going at the start. I felt like I was very interested in the premise and would like the preamble to be way shorter so I can meet the 2 main characters sooner. Perhaps that’s just my impatience. But then the meat of it felt so real - as someone who has studied in a neighbourhood school, I felt like the experience described was as authentic as it could be and the characterisations are on point. But I felt, at times, like some of them are just caricatures to serve the story which is totally fine because this is a pretty short book with a lot of characters. But perhaps in certain places I would like there to be a bit more depth so it doesn’t feel like they just appeared for that one scene or to serve that one purpose such as Summer and the photography club members who kind of appeared at the end whenJanice was having a break down and they suddenly solved the whole situation by being there with her but there was a long period where her activities at the club wasn’t really written about.
I also wished for the dialogues to show more of the characters uniqueness like how more singlish is used in neighbourhood schools which was mentioned but they somehow always spoke in perfect english sentences.
Somehow there is this specific Singaporean style of writing which really showed here. I found it so interesting that us Singaporeans liked to write our sentences a certain way. Like a really long English composition!
Overall, I really enjoyed this very accessible read and loved imagining a world where politics can reach such an exciting stage as well.
An opposition mp is appointed as the minister of education which is a big deal cause this never happens. She suggests an inter school exchange program and puts her daughter up for it. She and a student from a neighbourhood school swap places for a term and there are some ups and downs
I really quite enjoyed this book though it was rather slow going at the start. I felt like I was very interested in the premise and would like the preamble to be way shorter so I can meet the 2 main characters sooner. Perhaps that’s just my impatience. But then the meat of it felt so real - as someone who has studied in a neighbourhood school, I felt like the experience described was as authentic as it could be and the characterisations are on point. But I felt, at times, like some of them are just caricatures to serve the story which is totally fine because this is a pretty short book with a lot of characters. But perhaps in certain places I would like there to be a bit more depth so it doesn’t feel like they just appeared for that one scene or to serve that one purpose such as Summer and the photography club members who kind of appeared at the end when
I also wished for the dialogues to show more of the characters uniqueness like how more singlish is used in neighbourhood schools which was mentioned but they somehow always spoke in perfect english sentences.
Somehow there is this specific Singaporean style of writing which really showed here. I found it so interesting that us Singaporeans liked to write our sentences a certain way. Like a really long English composition!
Overall, I really enjoyed this very accessible read and loved imagining a world where politics can reach such an exciting stage as well.