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operasara 's review for:
The Midnight Zoo
by Sonya Hartnett
The Midnight Zoo by Sonya Hartnett is a magical tale of three children who find a zoo in the midst of a war torn country. Andrej, a Roma was forced to run with his brother and his baby sister after Nazi's capture his community. At the zoo they find that the animals can talk and they share their stories.
This book felt more like real literature than most middle grade books do. It has lots of big concepts that provide lots of potential for real thought and the prose was beautiful. I do wish that there had been more of an overreaching plot to move the story along, however the stories of all the animals and the boys were engrossing and very well written. There is some massive vocabulary in this book (along with beautiful descriptions) making this a good book for advanced readers. However the book is short enough that it is finished quickly.
Appropriateness: This book has a few difficult war scenes and asks questions that will require some higher level thinking skills (or help from an adult) to fully comprehend. I would recommend this book to readers 10-14 with it appealing equally to boys and girls.
This book felt more like real literature than most middle grade books do. It has lots of big concepts that provide lots of potential for real thought and the prose was beautiful. I do wish that there had been more of an overreaching plot to move the story along, however the stories of all the animals and the boys were engrossing and very well written. There is some massive vocabulary in this book (along with beautiful descriptions) making this a good book for advanced readers. However the book is short enough that it is finished quickly.
Appropriateness: This book has a few difficult war scenes and asks questions that will require some higher level thinking skills (or help from an adult) to fully comprehend. I would recommend this book to readers 10-14 with it appealing equally to boys and girls.