BOTM for June is Pie in the Sky

[SaraKat]

Leave your comments about our book for June on this thread.

[Justine]

I read this book a while back. I was pleasantly surprised to see the many illustrations in the book. It's like reading a chapter book, except there are more words in between the pictures. It's also like reading a graphic novel, because the illustrations sometimes take over the narration. It is an entertaining read. His younger brother brings a lighter side to the story. And the cakes he bakes on the sly are amusing.

[Manybooks]

Kind of annoying that I cannot get at copy, it sounds like fun. Read The Middle of Nowhere (the second place winner) instead and found it for one quite culturally appropriating and patronizing towards Aborigines and for two not really a Middle Grade but rather more likely young adult.

[Maria]

The semi-graphic novel format is well done, and I think would encourage reluctant readers to pick up this book. I enjoyed some of the big brother/little brother interaction, but some of it was annoying...
I think the depiction of the struggle of learning a new language was sympathetically done. The descriptions of cake baking were fun, and I hope this book inspires readers to try their hands at it.
It's interesting that the theme of this month was a book that takes place in Australia, because there is really nothing about Australia in the book. It could have taken place anywhere.
I didn't find the main character's reasoning (about why he had to bake the cakes, why he had to lie, etc) very convincing, and this took away from my enjoyment of the book.

[Laura]

I used to teach ESL so I identified with the brothers' struggles. The younger brother is learning English so much more easily than the older. The younger brother is acclimating and acculturating so much more easily. I'm familiar with these kinds of struggles.

I don't know enough about Australian culture to verify the accuracy but I like that there were distinctions between at the schools. I think this book could easily be used in the classroom (I teach 6th) but I don't know how I would book talk it.

[Manybooks]

Laura wrote: "I used to teach ESL so I identified with the brothers' struggles. The younger brother is learning English so much more easily than the older. The younger brother is acclimating and acculturating so..."

I myself definitely had much more trouble learning English, getting used to Canadian cultural norms and also making friends when we moved from Germany to Canada when I was ten than my younger siblings did (and I still have a bit of an accent whilst they speak both English and German without an accent, but my writing, reading and grammar knowledge is actually quite a bit better than theirs and in both languages).

[SaraKat]

I just read this book-a bit late. :) I enjoyed it quite a bit. It made me laugh at some of the antics, but I also felt really sad for our protagonist at times. His mom puts a lot of pressure on him as the older brother. He is treated like the responsible adult at times, but then at other times he is treated like a child like with the 'no-using-the-oven' rule. I don't feel like his brother acted his age. He ran around like a much younger child than one who was almost 10. I thought the struggles he went through to learn English felt real and the younger brother picking it up faster was pretty realistic as well.

I liked the seashell metaphor.