I can see why so many people loved this. It is charming and has some heart-warming and very funny elements. But for me it was a bit heavy-handed and I could never settle into an adult story told in a YA (and sometimes middle grade) style. ( )

I'm definitely not crying. What an amazing book. ( )

Delightful. A wonderful light hearted way of discussing bigotry in the modern age. Unfortunately necessary, but what a sweet story. ( )

Representation: N/A?
Trigger warnings: Fat shaming, abuse
Score: Six points out of ten.
This review can also be found on The StoryGraph.

I picked this up after not enjoying Glass Sword and swearing to never read from that author again so I picked this one up and I didn't know what to expect considering I've never read from this author before and I enjoyed this one, but there were some issues with the book itself that forced me to lower the rating of it so where do I even begin? I didn't understand why Arthur kept the orphanage, considering that he was abused in an orphanage in the past. The six kids had one gimmicky characteristic apiece, but other than that, they aren't fleshed-out characters. The writing style is too sweet, and there is no tension at all, and if there was I didn't feel it due to the writing style, and the book drags its plot at times. I couldn't connect to Linus, and all I remember was that he was criticised for his size, and he made a speech trying to persuade the Department in Charge of Magical Youth to stop the orphanages, and taking the orphaned kids (why were they orphaned in the first place, were they disowned, did their parents die?) to the hardware store, and that was it? So many unexplained questions. Did I mention this was inspired by a traumatic historical event called the Sixties Scoop which is the Canadian equivalent of the Stolen Generations but then it was all sugar-coated which I didn't like. That was problematic. There was a book that touched on that called Our Race for Reconciliation and that was better than this. I recommend the Harry Potter series if you want a better fantasy book. ( )

I really enjoyed reading this book. I believe the prejudice, that exists in our world of people who are different, is well shown. The mistreatment and mostly the hope for change.

The negative comments I read made me think a lot but I won't change my rating. I will definitely try to learn more about Sixties Scoop. ( )