Take a Shelfie: Hello, Universe

This book won the Newbery Award last year, and so I knew it was going to be good.  After all, lots of people, who make more time to read good books than I do thought it was worthy of the award.  I'm still scratching my head.

There are some good things to be said about the book.  You're introduced to some diverse characters: Virgil (and his guinea pig, Gulliver) whose Filipino grandmother tells stories that always end up with the person getting eaten, Chet, the bully, who has a mean father, Valencia, a deaf girl who gets mocked by Chet, and on whom Virgil has a crush (and who seems the most convincing character to me.) 

And then, there are the Tanaka sisters: Kaori, who is convinced that the universe intervenes in people's lives and she's the only one who can explain it, and her younger sister, Gen, who does whatever Kaori tells her.  The characters are charming, but not-quite-believable and the plot (boy gets picked on by bully, other kids come to his help) seems a little worn-out to me.

One of my students is reading the book now, and I'll be curious to see if his response is different than mine. My hope is that my students will connect to the characters better than I did!

Enjoy the book you're reading this week,

If you like, you can purchase the book through the link below.  You don't pay any extra for it but I earn a few pennies as an amazon affiliate.