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You are here: Home / Archives for review

review

Book Review: Janes in Love, by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg

26th June 2010 By Julianne Leave a Comment

 Photo by D Sharon Pruitt

This book is the second in a series, please read my review of The Plain Janes.

Janes in Love picks up where The Plain Janes left off. It’s Valentine’s Day and the Main Jane, Jane Buckles, wants a date for the Ides of March ball, but is torn between two boys. One of them she likes and knows, however, he doesn’t seem to be attracted to her as much as the newcomer is. But then he is stuck doing community service because of her! It’s a difficult situation, but she has a lot to distract her – the Janes are running out of money, Theatre Jane has fallen for an actor and Polly Jane has a boyfriend.

Things get worse when most of the Janes are caught by Officer Sanchez putting one of their public art pieces together, and after another terrorist attack, Main Jane’s mother stops leaving the house. It also becomes clear that Main Jane has a secret admirer – is it one of the boys she can’t decide between, or someone else? Main Jane is now sending letters to Poland for Miroslaw, and he inspires her to apply for a grant for P.L.A.I.N. to create a community art garden. Could this save the Janes?

I didn’t like this book as much as I did The Plain Janes. The characters didn’t really develop any more, which was disappointing, and I would have liked to see more public art and less worrying about love lives. The cover and title slightly annoyed me, they made this title very much more a ‘girl’ book whereas I thought the first book would appeal to boys as well. However, it was an entertaining read and because it is a short, mini-sized graphic novel, it took 40 minutes maximum for me to get through. It is definitely worth reading if you enjoyed The Plain Jane, and you need to read the first book in order to understand and appreciate this sequel. It was nice to spend time with the Janes again and it was easier to get into the plot of this one knowing the background information already. There was also a great romantic twist at the end! It is a shame that the Minx imprint was cancelled and that the sequels the writer and artist had planned are unlikely to surface.

You can see some pages from Janes In Love (without text, so no spoilers) and from the cancelled third instalment in the series, Janes Go Summer here at the readergirlz blog.

The BookDepository

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: activism, art, book review, books, Cecil Castellucci, comic, comic book, graphic novel, Jim Rugg, public art, review, romance, societies, teen fiction, teenage, teenage fiction, YA, young adult

Book Review: Green Fingers, by Paul May

5th May 2010 By Julianne Leave a Comment

by *clairity*

Kate is not happy about moving to the countryside, leaving her friends behind, and having to start over at another new school, but she’s just a kid, what can she do about it? She really wants her parents to be happy, but she finds reading so hard, and the teachers think she’s stupid. Dad loves the new house, and insists he will be able to fix it up and make it into their ideal home, but he lacks the DIY skills and one disaster follows another. After much arguing, Mum decides she can’t cope with it, and she is needed at work back in London, so she leaves.

Suddenly Kate realises that she has to do something. She has to try to learn to read and to make things better at school, and she also decides that she will do her bit towards making the new house a home and sort out the garden, which her Mum was attracted to when she first saw the house, but remains a mess. With the help of her new friends, Louise and her grandfather Walter, Kate plans to create a beautiful garden and save her family.

I read a lot of teen/YA fiction but I hadn’t read any younger children’s literature for a long time, and when I decided to read this short novel as it has similar themes to the YA book I am writing, I didn’t expect to be absorbed by it. To my surprise I loved Green Fingers! The characterisation is great, lots of serious issues are explored but the tone is optimistic, and I kept turning the pages and cried at the end! Kate is a sympathetic, determined girl and I really enjoyed my time with her. It’s nicely modern too – Kate’s Mum has a job in the city that she loves, whilst her Dad works from home on his computer and takes care of the children.
I think it is just the right length, although I was sad to leave the characters and put the book down.

I think this book is aimed at 8-13 year old children, and it strikes me as a particularly good book for reading aloud. There are illustrations at the start of each section and chapter, these were drawn by Sian Bailey. Paul May has written seven other fiction books and seven non-fiction books for children, and on his website he says that Green Fingers is his favourite book. I would definitely recommend this to my own cousins!

The BookDepository

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: book review, books, childrens, family drama, Paul May, review, rural setting

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Hi! I'm Julianne and this is my book blog. Click my picture to read more about me.

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