Author: Wendy Mass
Publisher: Scholastic Press
# of Pages: 246 (in the digital, ebook ARC)
Release Date: 24 September 2013
Publisher's Summary: Amanda and Leo have a history with birthdays. Now their friend's little sister, Grace, has fallen into a strange frozen state on her birthday, and Amanda and Leo must travel in time in order to fix whatever's wrong. As they journey back to each of Grace's birthdays, they start seeing all sorts of patterns . . . which raise all sorts of questions.
Amanda and Leo are going to have to unravel the threads of the past and present - and travel much further than they ever imagined - if they're going to save Grace. Luckily, a little birthday magic always helps in the charming and funny Willow Falls series by Wendy Mass, where everything is possible and there are no coincidences.
Review: I have a little bit of a literary crush on Wendy Mass. I constantly tell others (students, patrons, fellow teachers & librarians, moms, friends, strangers) who ask who my favorite author is that it's Wendy Mass. When I grow up to become an author (which at this rate will be sometime in my 60s) I want to be just like her. Mass' books are sweet and kind without being simple. The characters are complicated without any cheap drama. The Candymakers is on my list of top ten favorite Middle Grade books. (I waxed poetic about it in my review of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library.) She's one of those rare authors who is able to write tween dialogue that actually sounds like it comes from the mouths of tweens.
But, my love of her aside, I was disappointed in this book. Maybe it was in part because I enjoyed all of the previous Willow Falls books so thoroughly or because I had such high expectations for the series finale. But mostly I think I was disappointed because it ended so abruptly. It started out like all of Mass' books - she built background for readers who hadn't previously read books in the series, reintroduced the characters, and set the conflict, all in a way that endears the reader to the story. The plot revolves around a ten part mission and the first few parts were incredibly engrossing. But just as the book really started to get going, Mass ended it by wrapping everything up in series of neat bows. It was so sudden that it was jarring. I realize that part of the beauty of this series is that it's magical realism for the tween set, but enough things happened that are out of character for Willow Falls and its residents that I expected someone to question or comment on it. But that never happened. Adult and child characters accept explanations and events that they normally wouldn't and Mass explains it all with a literary shrug of "It's magic."
Maybe the sudden ending is due to the fact that the book is almost 250 pages long, which is lengthy for a middle grade book. Or maybe Mass just wanted to be done with the series. Either way, I just wish there had been a more satisfying ending to such a spectacular series.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment