Author: J.J. and Chris Grabenstein
Genre: realistic fiction
Similar books: The Lost Boy's Gift by Kimberly Willis Holt
The Next Great Paulie Fink by Ali Benjamin
Rating:
 |
| a solid but predictable journey |
Summary (provided by publisher): "Who do you want to be?" asks Mr. Van Deusen. "And not when you grow up. Right here, right now."
Shine on! might be the catchphrase of twelve-year-old Piper's hero--astronaut, astronomer, and television host Nellie Dumont Frisse--but Piper knows the truth: some people are born to shine, and she's just not one of them. That fact has never been clearer than now, since her dad's new job has landed them both at Chumley Prep, a posh private school where everyone seems to be the best at something and where Piper definitely doesn't fit in.
Bursting with humor, heart, science, possibilities, and big questions, Shine! is a story about finding your place in the universe--a story about figuring out who you are and who you want to be.
My opinion: If you're at all familiar with middle grade fiction, you'll likely be able to predict the final scenes of this book within the first couple of chapters. This means that the value of this story is the lessons the characters read along the way. The final lessons are obvious. The lessons about people being more than they appear, more than your first impressions, are in some ways more important. Even these lessons are fairly heavy handed, but this is often the case with middle grade fiction. More importantly, the characters all have at least a little complexity. They make wrong decisions but find ways to make it up to the people they've wronged. They regret bad choices and resolve to do better. While I might have liked a slightly more complex ending, the one we get is reasonable. It's not a mind blowing read, but a decently enjoyable one.
More information: Shine! releases November 5
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.
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