Các Món Canh Cá tải về miễn phí cuốn sách

Mega Chintasih megachintasih — Was so hard to get through. It just wasn't that interesting

Marcela Soares marcelatiz2c2b — Michael Vey is not a typical teen. He is small for his age, and suffers from a very visible, stigmatizing disability. His father is dead, and his mom works as a supermarket checker (i.e., he is poor). He has moved from school to school, and has only one friend. Oh, and he has a secret super-power. Is Michael's best friend a cliche? Well, that depends on your understanding of that concept. A cliche is a story element that has become trite or commonplace through overuse. Ostin has been described in other reviews as "a nerdy fat kid." There is a reason we see this type of character with some regularity in YA literature; there are lots of "nerdy fat kids" out there, and they tend to be picked on. I would argue that "nerdy fat kids" are actually UNDERREPRESENTED in fiction of all kinds. If you watch TV shows and movies aimed at teens, you might get the impression that there are NO fat kids out there! Kids like Michael and Ostin tend to congregate because they are ostracized by "the cool kids." The author would have been attacked as "unrealistic" if he had made Michael's best friend a popular jock. Come to think of it, reviewers have said just that about Michael's relationship with the popular cheerleader. I guess an author just can't win. He's going to be attacked no matter what he does. I fell in love with these characters almost immediately. I identified with them, and wanted to know what happened to them. That is exactly what is supposed to happen in well written fiction. Was the story relatively simple? Yes, it was - as is the norm for YA fiction, especially when it is character driven like this story. I loved the dialog, and did not have a problem with the fact that both boys sounded younger than their 15 years. I have spent time with kids like this in "real life," and understand that they often are a bit socially delayed. Michael and Ostin "rang true" for me, based on many years of experience around teens. Full disclosure: I am not a member of the target audience for this book, but talk with - and more importantly, listen to -teens every day, and am a big fan of the YA genre. I am neither a fan of Glenn Beck (who owns the imprint under which this book was published), nor of the author, who tends to write the kind of sentimental crap that I avoid like the plague. I just liked the book, and think teens will like it too. I have purchased a copy for my office so I can lend it out to my teen patients.