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leahrosekessler 's review for:
Sincerely, Harriet
by Sarah Winifred Searle
I'm disappointed to find myself only able to give this book two stars. I was very excited to read it because there are not many books for kids out there dealing with the subject of living with an "invisible illness" (In this case MS) and because I love graphic novels and the nuanced storytelling that can happen with the combination of text and images.
Sadly, I didn't feel this story had any nuance at all. It wasn't just a book featuring a character with an illness, that was the entire plot, as far as I could tell. In the author's note at the end, she writes, "...Harriet would tell us she loves movies, cooking, and maybe even writing. Their disabilities deserve our consideration and respect, but they don't define who they are as people." This is a wonderful sentiment and I would have loved to read a book that embodied it. However, Sincerely, Harriet takes place at a time in Harriet's life (after a move to a new city, before her doctors have helped her manage her MS) during which she really does seem to define herself by her disability.
I did not realize, after having read the entire book, that she loves watching moves or cooking. She did participate in each of these activities when an adult was available to do them with her a couple of times during the book, but the main plot point of the book seemed to be that she was sad, bored, lonely (her parents both work very long hours and leave her alone all day) and didn't have any friends, and was being given a panoply of classic books to read that she wasn't particularly interested in, and was repeatedly told to write about her feelings, which also didn't engage her enthusiasm (though she was oddly thrilled to be taken to a creative writing group at the end, despite her earlier lack of enthusiasm/satisfaction with writing.) I thought the choices the author made to make her life drab and depressing (Home alone all summer? No friends?) weren't done in a way that created an engaging narrative, it was more background shading to show how bleak Harriet felt, which isn't much of a story all by itself.
I also though the decision to place the book in the mid 1990's was odd, though it did explain why the adults persisted in giving her old classics and none of the wonderful array of more modern YA titles that might have piqued her interest and set her up for a more entertaining summer. (I found myself wondering, in fact, if this was actually the reason for the chosen time period, since there was no other reason I could identify that this story was 90's specific.) (As as side note, I do love many of the classic books she was asked to read, but they seemed like poor choices for this particular kid at this particular time in her life.)
Sadly, I didn't feel this story had any nuance at all. It wasn't just a book featuring a character with an illness, that was the entire plot, as far as I could tell. In the author's note at the end, she writes, "...Harriet would tell us she loves movies, cooking, and maybe even writing. Their disabilities deserve our consideration and respect, but they don't define who they are as people." This is a wonderful sentiment and I would have loved to read a book that embodied it. However, Sincerely, Harriet takes place at a time in Harriet's life (after a move to a new city, before her doctors have helped her manage her MS) during which she really does seem to define herself by her disability.
I did not realize, after having read the entire book, that she loves watching moves or cooking. She did participate in each of these activities when an adult was available to do them with her a couple of times during the book, but the main plot point of the book seemed to be that she was sad, bored, lonely (her parents both work very long hours and leave her alone all day) and didn't have any friends, and was being given a panoply of classic books to read that she wasn't particularly interested in, and was repeatedly told to write about her feelings, which also didn't engage her enthusiasm (though she was oddly thrilled to be taken to a creative writing group at the end, despite her earlier lack of enthusiasm/satisfaction with writing.) I thought the choices the author made to make her life drab and depressing (Home alone all summer? No friends?) weren't done in a way that created an engaging narrative, it was more background shading to show how bleak Harriet felt, which isn't much of a story all by itself.
I also though the decision to place the book in the mid 1990's was odd, though it did explain why the adults persisted in giving her old classics and none of the wonderful array of more modern YA titles that might have piqued her interest and set her up for a more entertaining summer. (I found myself wondering, in fact, if this was actually the reason for the chosen time period, since there was no other reason I could identify that this story was 90's specific.) (As as side note, I do love many of the classic books she was asked to read, but they seemed like poor choices for this particular kid at this particular time in her life.)