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What Members Thought
Ooh. This book is so fabulously clever and smart. It brings together: 1970s New York, the game show The $20,000 Pyramid, the many complexities of interpersonal relationships, A Wrinkle in Time, and a fantastic mystery. I loved the characters, and was so impressed with how Stead (seemingly) effortlessly charts the ups and downs of their relationships: friendships forming and falling apart and coming together again. This is a kids’ book, but like I said it is a smart kids’ book, one in which Stead
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YA. New York, 1979. Twelve-year-old Miranda's favorite book is A Wrinkle in Time. Her mom's about to go on $20,000 Pyramid. Her best friend is avoiding her. And someone's leaving Miranda mysterious notes in places they shouldn't be able to reach.
I liked the short chapters, the clear unfussy language, the various dramas and surprises of adolescence. And of course the mystery, the puzzle, of who is sending Miranda these notes. The reader is given enough information to make some guesses, and finall ...more
I liked the short chapters, the clear unfussy language, the various dramas and surprises of adolescence. And of course the mystery, the puzzle, of who is sending Miranda these notes. The reader is given enough information to make some guesses, and finall ...more
I was having a hard time figuring out what to say about this book. When I read the back of the book, I was like, "Okay... something about $20,000 Pyramid and mysterious letters. Got it." But it's got a sci-fi aspect that I wasn't expecting at all. I love sci-fi, so it wasn't a problem. But I just wasn't mentally prepared for it!
So anyway, I stole this review from someone named Oogles, who feels the same as I do about the book, from what I can tell... And uses ellipses like I do, too! w00t!
Time i ...more
So anyway, I stole this review from someone named Oogles, who feels the same as I do about the book, from what I can tell... And uses ellipses like I do, too! w00t!
Time i ...more
This books feels like it was written a couple of decades ago, in a good way. It fits nicely into that YA subgenre of New York latchkey kids navigating interpersonal and family issues, and the time travel aspect is worked in seamlessly - it does nothing to pull you out of the fairly quiet and ordinary goings-on. It's very much written for middle readers (the central mystery, for instance, is not all that mysterious, and the brief discussions of time travel theory are at a pretty basic level), but
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Miranda (named after the Miranda rights) is a sixth-grader living in New York City in 1979. On the day her best friend Sal gets punched on the way home from school and stops being her friend, Miranda finds a mysterious note. The note asks her to write a letter about everything that happens and to include certain details. Miranda receives other notes, and she can't figure out who is sending them, only that the person seems to know the future. She's dealing with making new friends and then there's
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Beautifully written, wonderfully plotted, and full of completely human characters.
I love the little clues that are scattered throughout, and I love the absolutely true to life middle school drama that is just as important to the book as the mystery.
But mostly I love the laughing man. (And now I need to reread A Wrinkle in Time.) ...more
I love the little clues that are scattered throughout, and I love the absolutely true to life middle school drama that is just as important to the book as the mystery.
But mostly I love the laughing man. (And now I need to reread A Wrinkle in Time.) ...more
I heard a lot of good things about this book but while pleasant, I thought it was a bit clumsy and a lot derivative. And it was obviously meant up be derivative with the L'Engle references, but nostalgia for nostalgia 's sake is not super memorable. Beyond, L'Engle the narrative voice was a pastiche of those found in Harriet the Spy, the Teddy Bear Habit, and Freaky Friday (and not in a good way).
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(3.5) Although it was well crafted, I was rather disappointed that this book didn't rock my world after all the great things I'd heard about it. The main character wasn't very well developed and didn't seem to have much agency, which diminished the tension of a storyline that felt, to me, a little too artificially smooth. Certainly worth reading, but I've enjoyed other books by this author more.
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I figured out the ending far in advance, but even so this was a highly enjoyable book (and there were a couple of threads I hadn't picked up on, so it was still fun seeing it all come together at the end). I think this is the first juvenile historical fiction I've seen that's set in the late 1970s; that was pretty neat, too.
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Oct 10, 2009
Laura
rated it
it was amazing
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review of another edition
Shelves:
mt-bookpile-pre-2010,
old-reads
Books like this leave me tongue-tied (finger-tied?) because so many others have been so eloquent about why this is a great book, and I'm not up to their level.
Having said that, I felt for Mira and her confusion about her relationship with Sal, her struggling to find other friends (and succeeding), and her realization about "never feeling meaner than the moment you stop being mean". The 12-year-olds here are really 12 - it doesn't feel as though the adult writing the book is trying to remember wh ...more
Having said that, I felt for Mira and her confusion about her relationship with Sal, her struggling to find other friends (and succeeding), and her realization about "never feeling meaner than the moment you stop being mean". The 12-year-olds here are really 12 - it doesn't feel as though the adult writing the book is trying to remember wh ...more
3.5
Good, but overrated. The characters just aren't that compelling. ...more
Good, but overrated. The characters just aren't that compelling. ...more
I can see why this won the Newbery. Excellent read.
A bit of a disappointment, but that is 100% because of wrong expectations rather than the fault of the book itself. I hadn't realized that it was a children's book, and thus approached it with a completely wrong mindset. Had I realized from the outset that this was the case (and probably also if I had read it as a physical book rather than an audiobook) I would likely have enjoyed it a lot more, as the plot was very enjoyable once I adjusted my expectations.
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Aug 04, 2009
Carmine
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
juvenile-fiction,
friendship
Ok, hype was a bit warranted. This is my favorite middle grade novel yet this year...but what box to stick it in? realistic time-travel mystery friendship/family drama set in 1970s New York City?
