This book is another candidate for the 2014 Mark Twain Award, our state's award for children's novels.
I would not have picked up this book to read it on my own. First, it has a cat on the front, and that, right out of the box, is a turnoff. Next, the book clearly does not appeal to boys. That being said, I read a number of books that target girls, and some of them turn out to be written quite well. The truth is, my opinion of the cover and the title may change upon reading the story inside.
That's what happened with this one. Pie is another shorter novel (weighing in at around 180 pages), and it kept my attention. Sadly, my prediction did not play out in the end, but I was satisfied with the resulting conclusion nevertheless.
I would not have picked up this book to read it on my own. First, it has a cat on the front, and that, right out of the box, is a turnoff. Next, the book clearly does not appeal to boys. That being said, I read a number of books that target girls, and some of them turn out to be written quite well. The truth is, my opinion of the cover and the title may change upon reading the story inside.
That's what happened with this one. Pie is another shorter novel (weighing in at around 180 pages), and it kept my attention. Sadly, my prediction did not play out in the end, but I was satisfied with the resulting conclusion nevertheless.
| Author Sarah Weeks quotes a review in her log: The story is told from the point of view of ten year-old Alice, the apple of Aunt Polly's eye. Alice, who has spent so much quality time on the tall red stool alongside her beloved auntie, has been bequeathed Lardo the cat. But Lardo doesn't even make it through a single night in Alice's bedroom before, apparently, being catnapped. This is not enough information for a reader to know about this novel. The fact is, this book changes its mood as it progresses. It starts out with an endearing tone where somehow the author tells more about the adults than the main character, Alice. That's OK, but it doesn't keep that tone. Instead, the story slips into a mystery that Alice is left alone to solve. Finally, Alice is accompanied, by happenstance, by her friend, Charlie. One will notice that the story effectively ends with the thirteenth chapter, but then proceeds with an epilogue, set 40 years later. After being satisfied with the original ending, the epilogue, in my opinion, was entirely unnecessary and took away my satisfaction. |
If a student reads (or is read) as few as four of the twelve Mark Twain Award nominees from the Missouri Association of School Librarians list, s/he may officially vote to help determine the 2014 recipient of the award.
