sometimes_samantha_reads's Reviews (283)

I can't remember the last time I devoured a book with so many pages this fast! Onto the next, right now!

Needless to say I am IMMEDIATELY starting the next book!

I read this with my 5th grade class as a model text for novels in verse for our poetry unit. It did the trick. I was able to highlight a lot of the technical aspects of poetry with them and the students were relatively engaged with the story. Overall, they understood what I was teaching so that's the main thing! It just wasn't my personal favorite story.

It was a decent book. A lot of moving pieces and I didn't predict the end which was good. The writing style seemed to shift midway through with the authors choice in vocabulary and imagery which was strange. It didn't seem intentional to aid the story  It was also weird having the main chatacter, a 17 year old high school student romantically involved with a 20 year old man. The story could have done just as well with a simple friendship. That aspect weirded me out sporadically throughout the story.

This graphic novel interpretation of the author's experiences with seizures was really interesting. PLEASE check content warnings before reading, but i highly recommend this story. You will need to have an ope  mind, heart, and some emotional capacity to read it. It talked about the discrimination of patients with "invisible" illnesses as not all seizures involve convulsions. It also talked about racial discrimination in the medical field. The story was relatable. Sad but hopeful toward the end. The art was beautiful! I loved the style and all of the colors. 

The concept was really cool! An elf is sent to a goblin kingdom as a spy and sends back "mind image" transmissions. In his transmissions he depicts goblins are horrific and barbaric creatures, when in reality, they simply have a different culture and are not all that bad! The illustrations compete with the text in a dissonance until the end when it all gets sorted.

I read this as a read aloud for my 5th grade class. Because the characters are also 5th graders, they really resonated with the book. We read it as part of our social issues unit to educate the kids about real life circumstances that can really happen to people. My students were able to really consider empathy through this book and was overall a great reading experience!

The shifts from flash back to present confused a handful of students, so we highlight them each time, but that was the only "drawback" or difficulty using this book as a read aloud.

A good ending. Bittersweet.