Sal is 13 year old who moves to a new state and a new school. His first day lands him in the principals office with the school bully about to be expelled. In walks Gabi, to save the bully, and make an impression on Sal. Sal and Gabi become friends through a series of events and together they begin a quest to save the world; the world they accidentally broke.
This is a difficult book to review. Reading it from an adult perspective, I tried to ascertain what age level would be appropriate. It’s written, according to publishing information, for children in grades 3-7. Some of the content is a little difficult to understand, thinking on it from the viewpoint of possible lower level readers. The vocabulary, the pranks, the level of maturity in some of the content would cause me to steer it toward older readers.
I found the writing to be phenomenal, and the story itself is very creative. The author has a great voice. It is, however, in my opinion, geared toward a more specific audience. Those who love realistic fantasy, those who may be Type 1 Diabetics, those of Cuban descent. The characters are quirky, yet mostly likable, and the storyline, while full of humor and pranks is about several serious subjects, which might be a bit too much going on for younger readers to grasp. There are also a lot of Spanish terms scattered on each page; as a non-Spanish speaking reader, the meanings were not always clear to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment