Sharelle Byars Moranville
Författare till Over the River
Verk av Sharelle Byars Moranville
27 Magic Words 4 exemplar
Taggad
Allmänna fakta
Medlemmar
Recensioner
Priser
Du skulle kanske också gilla
Statistik
- Verk
- 9
- Medlemmar
- 204
- Popularitet
- #108,207
- Betyg
- 4.0
- Recensioner
- 10
- ISBN
- 23
Five years after her parents have vanished, Kobi and her older sister, Brook, are living with Grandmamma in her stylish Parisian apartment. We learn that while Kobi has her words, Brook has rituals—obsessive-compulsive ones related to numbers—to keep her safe. The girls are well-cared for, but they’re unsettled. Kobi, in particular, longs to be reunited with her parents. Eventually, with their grandmother about to marry, the two travel to Des Moines, Iowa to live with kindhearted, slightly eccentric Uncle Wim, their mother’s younger half-brother. Wim’s girlfriend, Sally, and her “dotty” mother, Patricia, an artist famous for her installations and her creative exploration of transience, also figure prominently.
Having lived many years with older people in France and having been tutored at home, the sisters have to make challenging adjustments to their new American life with Uncle Wim. Kobi has a particularly hard time getting used to school and grade-five classroom politics. Because she’s younger, Kobi can’t attend the middle school her sister does. For the first time in her life, she’s not part of a pair. Gauche, oddly dressed —and essentially an object to be mocked by the class’s queen bee and her sidekick—Kobi is befriended by an imaginative, eccentric boy. However, even his support isn’t enough. She is troubled to find herself lying and embroidering stories about her family and friends in order to cope. Ultimately, things come to a head for Kobi. Circumstances force her to confront important truths she’s been hiding from.
Sharell Byars Moranville has packed a great deal into her short, quirky novel for middle-grade girls. At first I thought this book was akin to Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. In tone, it also reminded me of Canadian children’s writer Polly Horvath’s novels, including Everything on a Waffle. However, the novel moves in directions I didn’t anticipate. In the end, as much as I admired Moranville’s creativity and her ability to address more serious themes with a light and playful touch, I did not warm to the book quite as much as I expected to. Even so, I think this is a quality piece of writing that deserves an audience.… (mer)