Short and Simple Reviews: Getting Near to Baby, Mockingbird, and The Higher Power of Lucky

This is a place for books that I didn't fully review.

Maybe I listed my likes and dislikes, had a little short paragraph, or a few sentences to convey my feelings on the book, but whatever the "review" is, all of them are short and simple. (hence the clever name)

Today I have a group of short middle-grade books that won awards. Two are Newbery Award winners (or Honor Winners) and one, Mockingbird, won the National Book Award.

Willa Jo and Little Sister are up on the roof at Aunt Patty’s house. Willa Jo went up to watch the sunrise, and Little Sister followed, like she always does. But by mid-morning, they are still up on that roof, and soon it’s clear it wasn’t just the sunrise that brought them there.


The trouble is, coming down would mean they’d have to explain, and they just can’t find the words.


This is a funny, sometimes heartbreaking, story about sisters, about grief, and about healing.  Two girls must come to terms with the death of their baby sister, their mother’s unshakable depression, and the ridiculously controlling aunt who takes them in and means well but just doesn’t understand children. Willa Jo has to try and make things right in their new home, but she and Aunt Patty keep butting heads. Until the morning the two girls climb up to the roof of her house. Aunt Patty tries everything she can think of to get them down, but in the end, the solution is miraculously simple.

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Review

This is a fairly quick read that touches on how the death of a little sibling, and the grief of their mother, affects two young girls. The narration was strong and very apt for the age of the main character. The movement of the story was interesting as it has the frame story of the MC, Willa Jo, and Little Sister sitting on the roof of their aunt's and for some reason, they don't want to get down. Willa Jo then jumps through time to show the reader what happened before they got onto the roof. This was very powerful and can be difficult to read at points, but is, unfortunately, an experience that people go through. It is written very well and it is certainly a Newberry title worth reading.

 I hereby give this book

3.5 Stars

Meaning: I liked it, but it wasn't quite amazing

In Caitlin’s world, everything is black or white. Things are good or bad. Anything in between is confusing. That’s the stuff Caitlin’s older brother, Devon, has always explained. But now Devon’s dead and Dad is no help at all. Caitlin wants to get over it, but as an eleven-year-old girl with Asperger’s, she doesn’t know how. When she reads the definition of closure, she realizes that is what she needs. In her search for it, Caitlin discovers that not everything is black and white—the world is full of colors—messy and beautiful.Kathryn Erskine has written a must-read gem, one of the most moving novels of the year.

  

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Review

This is a very powerful book that makes your heart hurt. This is yet another book where a young girl is dealing with the death of a sibling, but this time it's her older brother (and her best friend). The MC, Caitlin, has Asperger’s and I don't know whether the representation in this book was accurate (some reviewers say yes, some say no), so in any case, no one should go into this book thinking that this is how everyone with Asperger’s thinks. This is just how Caitlin thinks. I do think that the narration in this book was incredibly well-written. I read other middle-grade award winners that read like an adult in a child's body but this book really did feel like the voice of an eleven-year-old girl and it had experiences from being that age. I loved the search for Closure in this book and the ending was wonderful.

 I hereby give this book

4 Stars

Meaning: It was amazing

Lucky, age ten, can't wait another day. The meanness gland in her heart and the crevices full of questions in her brain make running away from Hard Pan, California (population 43), the rock-bottom only choice she has.

It's all Brigitte's fault -- for wanting to go back to France. Guardians are supposed to stay put and look after girls in their care! Instead Lucky is sure that she'll be abandoned to some orphanage in Los Angeles where her beloved dog, HMS Beagle, won't be allowed. She'll have to lose her friends Miles, who lives on cookies, and Lincoln, future U.S. president (maybe) and member of the International Guild of Knot Tyers. Just as bad, she'll have to give up eavesdropping on twelve-step anonymous programs where the interesting talk is all about Higher Powers. Lucky needs her own -- and quick.

But she hadn't planned on a dust storm. Or needing to lug the world's heaviest survival-kit backpack into the desert.

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Review

I picked this book up on a whim at a book sale. The characters were fantastic and it had wonderful themes, but this book was simply okay. I felt like there wasn't enough there in the story to really connect with the themes throughout the book and there wasn't really much of a story. It is all really about Lucky searching for her Higher Power after eavesdropping on AA meetings and worrying that her Guardian is going back to France, but there really wasn't a search for Higher Power. There wasn't a whole lot happening, which makes sense for a short book, but for a short book, it was having a hard time keeping my attention. I loved the characters, but that was the main gist of the book and the themes discussed in this book were discussed better in other MG titles. Overall, this didn't really make much of an impact on me and I doubt I'll remember it in the long run. This is a first in a trilogy, but I don't feel the need to continue. 

 I hereby give this book

2.5 Stars

Meaning: I kind of liked it, but it was mostly okay