Smashbomb

Search

Search results

All (2037)

Content

Nicole Hadley (380 KP) rated The Exact Location of Home in Books

Jun 18, 2018

The Exact Location of Home by Kate Messner is a story that will pull at the readers heart. In the story Zig and his friends spend a great deal of time together going to garage sales, skipping rocks, and just being together. When Zig gets a gps, they begin geocaching. But Zig hides a secret from his friends that has changed his entire world. As Zig grows, he finds support from an unexpected ally and gives support to a young boy, both facing similar circumstances as Zig.

Messner has given us a compassionate and necessary middle grade story about the reality of homelessness for many children today. This story has a unique premise with the geocaching theme and I love that while the main character is in 8th grade he will be relatable for students both much younger and much older than he is. I would love to get this book into the hands of all teachers and administrators who struggle to understand how difficult school can be for children without a stable home life, and who make well-intended but thoughtless comments about the homeless population.

I received this ARC from Bloomsbury USA Children's Books and Bloomsbury USA Childrens via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Kudos

ClareR (5874 KP) rated 99 Nights in Logar in Books

Jan 5, 2019

99 Nights in Logar

Jamil Jan Kochai | 2019 | Fiction & Poetry

3.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Just not for me...

I don't like giving low marks, but I really struggled with this book. The synopsis of the book was very interesting: 12 year old Marwand and his young cousins set off on a journey to find the family dog after it bites off Marwand's finger and escapes. They travel through a remote area of Afghanistan without any adults knowledge. So far so good. I liked the premise of the story.
Where I struggled was the style of writing. Pakhto and Farsi were used in the story, and I found it impossible to understand. Perhaps the end published book will have a glossary to refer to? Even the context where the language was used didn't help me. The family relationships and forms of address were complicates and I really couldn't keep track of who was who (could this be added into a glossary?). Finally, for me, the animal cruelty was pretty difficult to stomach.
Other readers may be able to see past this last point, and a glossary may well be added in the finished, published book, but I'm afraid this is just not for me personally.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this book to read and review.

Kudos

Deborah (162 KP) rated Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death in Books

Dec 19, 2018

Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death

James Runcie | 2012 | Fiction & Poetry, Religion

6.3

(4 Ratings)

Book Rating

First off, I expected this to be a novel, so when I got about 70 pages in and it seemed to be winding up the mystery, I was a bit confused. It's actually a series of 6 stories which are different mysteries that Cannon Sidney Chambers finds himself getting involved in. Also, except for the division into stories, there are no chapter breaks.

Of the six stories here, I thought that some worked better than others. The first ones were a little more genteel whereas the later ones, particularly perhaps the penultimate story, were a little more dark and disturbing.

I'm too young to remember this period, so I can't comment on how accurate it is, but I didn't feel that I got a really strong sense of the period. The geographical setting is mainly around Cambridge, with several jaunts up to London. Perhaps the author thought this was just the sort of thing to appeal to those readers of Agatha Christie, because the solutions to no less than three of her books are revealed here - good job I'd read them already....

Altogether, there's enough going on to sustain the interest and I see that the author is proposing a total of six volumes, taking us right up to the early 1980s.