Eleanor & Park in Around the World in 80 Books

Oct 13, 2013 Laura (booksnob) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, young-adult

In September, the Anoka-Hennepin school district, in Minnesota, banned author Rainbow Rowell from coming to speak about her book Eleanor & Park, during Banned Books Week. The controversy caused a wave of opinions and the outrage of book lovers everywhere. It also put Eleanor & Park on the radar of many readers, including me, as I went out and bought the audio book immediately. Don't they know that if you ban a book, people everywhere want to read it? I guess not.

Eleanor: New girl in town. Insecu In September, the Anoka-Hennepin school district, in Minnesota, banned author Rainbow Rowell from coming to speak about her book Eleanor & Park, during Banned Books Week. The controversy caused a wave of opinions and the outrage of book lovers everywhere. It also put Eleanor & Park on the radar of many readers, including me, as I went out and bought the audio book immediately. Don't they know that if you ban a book, people everywhere want to read it? I guess not.

Eleanor: New girl in town. Insecure, a bit overweight, and has a horrible home life. The first day, she climbs onto the bus and no one will let her sit down.

Park: Reluctantly moves over on the bus. Hopes no one notices. Listens to his headphones and reads comic books.

Eleanor: I wonder if he's Asian. He is always reading these comic books, and he doesn't notice that I am reading them too. There are no books in my house. I have lots of younger siblings and we all sleep in one room. 5 of us in one room.

Park: Why does she wear those horrible clothes? Maybe I should try and talk to her. She has red, curly hair. It looks soft. Is she reading my book? I think she is. Hmmm.

Little by Little, Eleanor and Park become friends and fall in love on the school bus in 1986. What evolves is a sweet tragic love story, told in the alternating voices of Eleanor and Park. This book brought me back to my high school days and my own first love experienced in the 80's. These two characters have stolen my heart. Eleanor faces bullying and an abusive step-father and through it all, she knows she can count on Park. Park is in love and wants it to be forever, but Eleanor knows it will end someday as all first love stories do.

The audiobook has two narrators, one male and one female and they play the parts of Eleanor and Park extremely well. I Loved it! I would highly recommend this audiobook, it was definitely a great listening experience. It kept my attention and brought the characters to life. It will make you laugh and cry and cringe over the horrible things that Eleanor had to deal with. The story is not sticky sweet but a real life type of love story. Each character brings their own problems to the relationship and yet this relationship is Eleanor's only chance to escape the demons in her life. Park exists to be Eleanor's serene, calm island, her safety net, in the middle of life's thunderstorm.

I recently heard Rainbow Rowell speak about her book and she stated that Eleanor and Park takes place in her neighborhood, on her school bus and at her high school. It took her a year to write Eleanor & Park.

A note to the parents who banned Rainbow Rowell from visiting their school district: I want to say thank you because it was you who caused me to notice and read Eleanor & Park and you, who made me want to see Rainbow speak in St. Paul and it was you, who inspired me to invite her to my high school to speak and it is you, I thank, as I continue to recommend this book to every teenager I know and teach.
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Jul 02, 2014 Tanya rated it really liked it

Loved the characters of this book. The author does a wonderful job capturing all the emotions that surround the teen years. I thought she did a wonderful job with Park's parents. They were loving, strict, sometimes confused but always supportive. I originally hated the ending. After some time and thought, I think it was perfect. ...more

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Jun 09, 2015 Tanya rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2015, format-audiobook, genre-young-adult, challenge-2015-popsugar, challenge-2015-semi-charmed-life, list-2016-reading-olympics

Having just read a recent young adult romance, I can say that I enjoyed this one much better and can recommend it to my tween daughter. The language is not foul and the romance in it builds slowly from a friendship rather than being so hot and heavy from the start. I don't particularly care for protagonists that can insult others as they desire and the others still love and appreciate them without much confrontation and pure acceptance, but that seems to be a trend I am moving in some young adul ...more

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Feb 13, 2017 Rachel N. rated it liked it

Shelves: romance, play-book-tag, young-adult, read-in-2017, nebraska, omaha, high-school, abuse

Eleanor is the new kids in school who dresses strangely. Park is the half Korean kid who is into music and comics and who doesn't quite fit in. Park reluctantly lets Eleanor share his seat on the bus and the two slowly become boyfriend and girlfriend. Eleanor has a lot of family issues and of the two main characters I found her to be the more interesting one. Not an earthshaking story but I did find myself slowly being sucked in and in the end i didn't want the book to end. I enjoyed Rowell's wr ...more

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Jul 18, 2013 Ginger rated it really liked it

Shelves: kidlit-middle-ya

I hear tell that this is a "YA" novel, but I certainly can't imagine reading it as a teenager.* The subject matter was extremely weighty. There is far more in this book that I DIDN'T like than I did (language, so much language, though in Eleanor's world, it seemed believable instead of just there for shock value).

But still, I couldn't put it down, and I was sobbing through the last 25 pages or so.

It is not a book I "enjoyed," but I feel certain I'll be thinking about it for some time to come. I ...more

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Dec 09, 2013 Tatiana rated it liked it

I liked the booked but there are some open ends that just left me sad disappointed and a little bit confused. Rainbow didn't have to spell everything out but it leaves me wondering a lot about what actually happened between characters like Eleanor and Richie. Eleanor & Park. FanGirl was definitely better all together in my opinion but I'm looking forward to more of Rainbow Rowell's books. Well, on to the next one! ...more

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