Middle Grade Reviews: Destiny, Rewritten & Frogged

Funny enough I'm piling up the middle grade review books (we've been reading like mad around here!) so I figured I'd better double up here since one is out and one is out very soon!  

Destiny, Rewritten by Kathryn Fitzmaurice

Hardcover, 176 pages

Published: Feb. 19th, 2013 by Katherine Tegan Books (Harper)

Source: ALAMW

Des·tin·y: |destinē/
(noun) The hidden power believed to control what will happen in the future; fate.

Eleven-year-old Emily Elizabeth Davis has been told for her entire life that her destiny is to become a poet, just like her famous namesake, Emily Dickinson. But Emily doesn’t even really like poetry, and she has a secret career ambition that she suspects her English-professor mother will frown on. Then a seeming tragedy strikes: just after discovering that it contains an important family secret, she accidentally loses the special copy of Emily Dickinson’s poetry that was given to her at birth. As Emily and her friends search for the lost book in used bookstores and thrift shops all across town, Emily’s understanding of destiny begins to unravel and then rewrite itself in a marvelous new way.

In her third novel, Kathryn Fitzmaurice again weaves a richly textured and delightful story about unexpected connections, about the ways that friends can help us see ourselves for who we truly are, and about the most perfect kinds of happy endings: those that happen just on time.

This book.  This book put a huge smile on my face.  I rarely feel such a fondness for characters, like I really, really loved the characters in this book.  So, so, SO much!  For me these are like David Levithan and John Green's characters at age 11.  I don't know if that's precisely correct, but it's pretty darn close.  I do know Emily stood out to me just as much as any of their characters.

Emily was names after Emily Dickinson and has been told her whole life that it's her destiny to be a poet.  Her mom is a poet and had this whole 'moment' when holding an Emily Dickinson book when trying to come up with a name.  So she's just sure that it's Emily's destiny to be a poet.  But Emily doesn't really 'get' poetry.  She doesn't really have an urge to write it at all.  When her book goes missing (there's much more to the story) that has her whole life written in it (it's a poetry book by Emily Dickinson that her mother has recorded every special moment in) Emily feels like destiny has just changed.  So while searching for her book she decides to switch things up a bit and not be so predictable and organized.  She's obviously a bit of a perfectionist.  She doesn't like clutter or anything 'out of place'.  This refers to her life as well.  So suddenly she allows herself to step on the cracks on sidewalks, not line her shoes up by color, let a spoon sit in the sink instead of washing it immediately, etc.  All these small little things can so easily change her destiny.  And in this book we do see how these small little things DO make a difference and can change our life.  This is more obvious at the end, but it was so fun getting there.

Emily has a lot fun quirks I love.  She may be 11, but sometimes she feels like a 30 year old lady.  No, not in a bad way!  She's very mature I guess.  But yet, she's not.  Somehow the author managed to make Emily an authentic sounding 11 year old, but a very worldly one.  One that's very smart and precocious, I guess.  Emily loves reading the endings of romance novels and writes them all on index cards.  She also writes regularly to Danielle Steel (whose books she has all read) and tells her almost everything going on in her life.  In this book she starts taking a romance writers class (college students put it together, she's obviously too young, but they accept her) and starts going to poetry readings.

All the other characters were extremely well fleshed out and easy to imagine and connect with.  Her cousin Mortie will have you ROLLING.  Seriously, funniest character EVER!  And her mom will put a smile on your face.  Her best friend Wavey and her have the best conversations you'll ever read and will have you LOL.  Very, very fun!

I read this one aloud to my kids at night and it was so hard to stop reading!  I think I would have liked to just sit back and enjoy it all at once and maybe would have liked it even more (if that's possible).  I just know I loved this book with all my heart and it's one I will certainly reread.  It's adorable and so fun!  It's kind of a 'middle' middle grade book.  The kids were left on their own a lot and had some adventures I wouldn't want my 8 year old to consider just yet. There's also a touch of romance in it and some kissing talk (no actual kissing or anything though). So I think I'll probably give this one back to her when she's 10 or 11 as that's about the perfect age for this book. 

Buy this book and read it, you'll adore these characters!

Disclosure: I received this book free of charge at ALAMW.  All opinions expressed are my own and I was not paid or influenced in any way.

Frogged by Vivian Vande Velde

Hardcover, 208 pages

Expected publication: April 2nd 2013 by Harcourt Children's Books

Ages: 9 and up

Source: ALAMW

 One should be able to say of a princess “She was as good as she was beautiful,” according to The Art of Being a Princess (third revised edition), which the almost-thirteen-year-old Princess Imogene is supposed to be reading. Not feeling particularly good, or all that beautiful, she heads for a nearby pond, where, unfortunately, a talking frog tricks her into kissing him. No prince appears, as one might expect. Instead, the princess turns into a frog herself! Thus launches a funny, wonderfully spun fractured fairy tale in which Imogene wonders if she will be forever frogified.

When I first started reading this one I was a bit unsure how I would feel about it.  It's a made up fantasy land but it's very simple (not explained real well, but yet that's not really an issue in this one) where a princess meets a frog who tells her he is a prince who was turned into a frog.  So she kisses him but the spell just switches to her and now she's a frog!

While the start just seemed a bit silly it quickly grew on me and I found myself loving Imogene SO much!  She has to deal with some pretty stupid (or simple) people and she's quite hilarious in how she deals with these people.  Her inner voice and her snark were really a joy to read.  I found myself reading more and more each night instead of setting the book down like I normally do.  I was desperate to see if she ever got un-frogified and how that might happen.

And just so you know- talking frogs are not common in the this story.  Hopping up to someone and announcing you are Princess Imogene is not necessarily going to work  because honestly, frogs can't talk!  We all know that right?  So this makes her situation just a tad more complicated.

If I were going to point out any qualms I would maybe say the ending was a tad anticlimactic.  It wasn't really much of an issue for me though.

This one says it's for ages 9 and up and I think that's pretty accurate on what I would have guessed.  It had a younger feel much of the time but yet there was talk of cute boys and such (mainly concerning another character who was boy crazy) there's also some humor that adults might get more than children, but yet isn't inappropriate for them.

I definitely recommend this one for girls who like a light, silly and fun fantasy book!

Disclosure: I received this book free of charge at ALAMW.  All opinions expressed are my own and I was not paid or influenced in any way.