J.C. Buchanan

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Title: The Charming Life of Izzy Malone  (Izzy Malone, #1)

Author: Jenny Lundquist

Published By:  Simon & Schuster /Aladdin (2016)

Synopsis: Izzy Malone isn’t your typical middle schooler. She wears camouflage combat boots, the stars are her only friends, and after a month she’s set a new record for the most trips to her principal’s office.
But Izzy’s life isn’t so charming these days. The kids at school think she’s a mouthy misfit, her musical prodigy sister gets all the attention at home, and no one takes Izzy’s determination to compete in her small town’s Great Pumpkin Race seriously.

When Izzy’s antics land her in hot water, her parents enroll her in Mrs. Whippie’s Earn Your Charm School. At first Izzy thinks it sounds stupid—her manners are just fine, thanks—but Mrs. Whippie’s first assignment proves intriguing. Tucked inside a letter is a shiny charm bracelet and instructions telling her she will “Earn Her Charm” by performing a series of tasks. For each task Izzy completes, she’ll receive a charm to place on her bracelet. “Complete them all,” the letter says, “and you will have earned a prize unlike any other.”

Soon Izzy’s adding charms to her bracelet. But when a task goes seriously awry and threatens to derail her mother’s budding political career, Izzy has her hands full proving she’s not an emerging juvenile delinquent. Add in some middle school mean girls, a giant pumpkin that could be the answer to all her problems, and discovering she might have a crush on the boy she accidentally punched in the face, and Izzy may just pull it all together and Earn Her Charm. And she’s about to find out the best kind of friends are just like stars: Bright and beautiful, appearing just when you need them, to shine a little bit of light on a dark night. (Taken from Goodreads)

Review:

The Charming Life of Izzy Malone was an awesome read, one that will appeal to all ages and all people. It was easy to relate to and love quirky Izzy, who can’t seem to stay out of trouble, even though you know she has a sweet and genuine heart. Each friend is introduced in their own spotlight, first Violet, then Daisy, and finally Sophia. The way these characters eased their way into the storyline (and into your heart) was so beautiful and I absolutely fell in love with them and the friendships they formed.

I thought the twists were clever—though not shocking, to me at least—and the storyline was spectucular in its structure. Everything keeps going perfectly wrong for Izzy, yet it didn’t seem cliche at all. It was realistically painted and remarkably written.

I LOVED the way Austin and Izzy were done, which, that is, they weren’t done, because they don’t end up dating in the book. Instead the message sent is waiting is OK, which I thought was fantastic and a nice breath of fresh air, separate and different from the immature love stories clotting the pages of most middle-grade novels.

Throughout the book, I sensed that the author was a Christian, and I was very happy to find she was; I saw the threads of her values and beliefs make their way throughout the pages of this book, nothing direct or straightforward, but quiet and subtle. Way to go, Jenny Lundquist!

Wholeheartedly a great, sweet, charming read!

Negative Content:

None.

Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

Recommended to: All ages!

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Title: The Dressmaker’s Secret (The Chronicles of Alice and Ivy, #1)

Author: Kellyn Roth

Published By: CreateSpace (2017)

Synopsis: After a revealing conversation with the first children of her age she’s ever met, curious eight-year-old Alice Chattoway realizes that one ought to have a father … and she doesn’t. Having determined that his absence is making her mother unhappy, Alice resolves to find him and create a family for herself.
However, Alice’s mother, Miss Chattoway, is reluctant to answer any questions posed about a man she’d much rather forget. While Alice investigates, Miss Chattoway tries to balance her own spiritual turmoil with her need to be both mother and provider to her daughters.
Will Alice ever unravel her mother’s secrets? Can Miss Chattoway let go of the past to reach for the future? (Taken from Goodreads)

Review:

**This is a review of the second edition of The Dressmaker’s Secret, published June 2017**

Alright, here we go.

When I first read this book last year I liked it a lot. Having reread it this year with the revised changes, I have…rethought a lot of my original opinion. I’ll start with my positives…

One: Characters. I felt the characters grew a LOT from version one to version two. Ivy really came alive, and Alice was a lot more developed. Claire, unfortunately, still felt flat to me, which a lot of that is probably just her personality, but I wished we had seen a little more depth. Mr. and Mrs. Knight were the same, maybe a little better, and same goes for Mr. Parker. Nettie is awesome as always. I really, really liked her. I also felt the characters were more distinctive and individual than version one; while the first time I read this I kept looking back to see who was who, it was a lot easier to keep track of them this time around, which made it more enjoyable.

Two: Writing. I saw the author’s writing improve a ton from version one to two. I started this book with my mouth agape at her talent. Like whoa! Kellyn Roth, girl, you go. The words beautifully flowed across the page, pulling the reader in and describing everything in a way you can easily visualize.

Downsides…

In The Dressmaker’s Secret, there was pretty much a sermon about God’s love or God’s grace or God’s salvation every other paragraph. Which I love the heart behind that. I love what Kellyn was trying to do in this book, but it was forced on the characters too fast. Claire’s change of heart felt so forced. It didn’t even make any sense—she’s stubborn and against religion, but one day she wakes up and—poof!—sees the light. The message that was fantastic, but the way it was sent just didn’t work; it was too overdone and, honestly, very cheesy. Nettie’s messages to Alice would have been impactful, but I wish they hadn’t been every other paragraph. Having millions of small moments-turned-sermons—and then having Alice immediately recourse her life thereafter—was hard to believe. Then again, I could be missing it. I’m definitely not one to stand here and say that God can’t use this story, because He definitely can if He wants to, and He might fully want to!

Finally, my last negative is the whole end…. which got more developed and consequently increased my frustration…When you have two characters that you want to end up together, but one of them happens to be already married (due to a life mistake), I generally do not think it is the best idea to kill off said character’s wife in order to get them back together. It just kind of sends the wrong message. Especially surrounded by messages of God’s will, it almost seemed like it was saying God killed off the wife in order to restore his divine plan, which I know is obviously not what the author intended but unfortunately is how it came off.

Overall:

However, I still did enjoy the book. The author truly does have incredible talent, and I look forward to adding this book to my collection!

Rating: 4.0 / 5.0 

Recommended to: Anyone and everyone! 🙂

** I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.**

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Title: Some Kind of Happiness

Author: Claire Legrand

Published By: Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers (2016)

Synopsis: THINGS FINLEY HART DOESN’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT
• Her parents, who are having problems. (But they pretend like they’re not.)
• Being sent to her grandparents’ house for the summer.
• Never having met said grandparents.
• Her blue days—when life feels overwhelming, and it’s hard to keep her head up. (This happens a lot.)
Finley’s only retreat is the Everwood, a forest kingdom that exists in the pages of her notebook. Until she discovers the endless woods behind her grandparents’ house and realizes the Everwood is real–and holds more mysteries than she’d ever imagined, including a family of pirates that she isn’t allowed to talk to, trees covered in ash, and a strange old wizard living in a house made of bones.
With the help of her cousins, Finley sets out on a mission to save the dying Everwood and uncover its secrets. But as the mysteries pile up and the frightening sadness inside her grows, Finley realizes that if she wants to save the Everwood, she’ll first have to save herself. (Taken from Goodreads)

Review:

So much depth contained in the pages of this novel. I was captivated from page one, and soaked in every word. I loved the themes, loved the message, loved the characters, loved the plot. It was confusing and a little hard to understand at turns, but overall it was a satisfying read, full of depth and meaning.

This book tackles a difficult subject, especially considering the target audience is middle grade: depression, anxiety, sadness—but I think the author pulled it off with flying colors. I don’t struggle with these things myself, but the way it was described in Finley’s mind pulled me in to a point where I now feel that I understand what it feels like.

Finley is such a perfect main character for this novel. She’s a kid, she’s mature—but she’s still a kid. Her depression and anxiety is described well, as I’ve said, and she expresses and struggles with it just as you’d expect any eleven-year-old to—with confusion and uncertainty. She’s mature beyond her years, but is still a kid, and for that I absolutely loved her. I totally related to her writerly side—aka, writing scenes in her mind while walking through the forest—and I was hooked by her story of Everwood just as much as I was hooked by the “real life” story. Not to mention it came together perfectly.

This book tackles the issues I’ve mentioned before with skill and maturity, and for this reason I do think the book would better be appreciated for an older audience. Younger kids will read this just fine, but they just might not get it. There are some seriously deep things addressed, things that will fly over kids’ heads but as a teenager I understand.

There were also some darker elements of this book that I’d say the same about—they’ll completely fly over kid’s heads, but older readers will understand, and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. Depression is represented as “Dark Ones” holding onto Finley, and she has to learn to cast them off in order to get rid of her depression and anxiety. At the beginning she holds onto the Dark Ones, too, because she’s scared to let go, but as she grows, she discovers she has to cast them off. This got very dark/deep in there for a while, and though it ended well, I don’t think it was fitting for the designated audience.

Another example is in the beginning while exploring, the kids find an old house, burned down, and three graves by it—the people who used to live there. One of the main plots is trying to figure out what happened. Eventually it’s revealed that Finley’s aunts were having a hard time, went out partying in the woods, got all drunk and accidentally set the house on fire, accidentally killing all three people inside. While this kind of thing I’d say is undoubtedly too dark for the middle grade audience, it was written in a way that will fly over their heads and they really won’t understand it completely—you learn through Finley’s personal perception of it through an Everwood tale, so only more mature and older teens will understand what happened.

However, though, these dark themes are defeated in the end, shoved away and pushed down, overcome by positive themes and ideas of love, forgiveness. One of the most powerful ideas I saw in this book was the idea of loving no matter what. Finley meets a new friend, Jack, who tells her he loves his father, even though his father is a drunkard and mean to him. Finley doesn’t understand how he could love someone who did something so bad. Later, when she suspects her aunt’s secret, she thinks she could never love them if they did it. However, when she does find out, she has a revelation moment when she realizes she does still love them, and that they’re family and that no matter what they do, she’ll always still love them. I loved this scene and concept so much and thought it was such a positive and brilliant message to send, fitting in well with the plot nonetheless. This came in in other ways, too, such as the plotline with Finley’s grandparents disowning her father and her parents’ divorce (which I didn’t get, because it seemed like they were doing fine). It was such powerful themes about family and love and forgiveness.

It seriously was such an unique and creative plotline, full of originality and spark. I do think now, though, that this definitely should be marketed towards an older audience–it’s just too much for younger kids and it will completely go over their heads. This is a beautiful and brilliant book, however, so I do believe it is important, I just don’t think it’s really fitting for the audience it’s designed for. My main setback was it just had a bit too much darkness/creepiness for my taste…it was eerily realistic, and even though it was defeated and I get why it’s there, to represent the dark things Finley struggles with, I just personally don’t like reading about too much darkness. I did really appreciate the ending and defeat, however.

Notes:

Mentioned above. Some darker themes.

Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

Recommended to: Ages 12+.