Hello, everybody! First off, I would like to apologize for not being here the past few days/weeks. I am so sorry! It’s been a tiring past few days! My aunt and cousin came to stay for a while. It was exhausting. And we also had like a few days when the Wi-Fi wouldn’t work so that’s why I haven’t been able to post anything. So sorry! I’ve also been working on some revisions for book two, tweaks to book one (might need another round of revisions) and my cousin helped me with refining the title for book one. Enchantria: Warrior’s Daughter is going to have a title change. Maybe a cover change if my attempt to draw miraculously works. Anyway… without further delay, here is the Book of the Month for May!
Believe by Julie Mathison!
Unlike most of the books I read (except for the Newbery books), this one isn’t really a fantasy. I don’t know what you call those books that take place in the real world where the main characters have to solve realistic problems… yeah… I don’t know what you call those.
Anyway, this book is about a girl named Melanie who’s really special in a sort of way. In the book, she can sort of understand the secret language of old houses and even make jewels from pieces of broken glass. Not really, but she does it with her imagination. One day, she meets a girl named Sabrina and they become friends. And Melanie lands the lead in Peter Pan. There’s much more, like how her mother just walked out the door one day and never came back. Sabrina thinks they can find Melanie’s mother, and Melanie wants to.
Um… okay, sorry. I’m probably terrible at summaries. Always suffered with them, always will. So sorry cuz that summary of the book above is probably terrible. But honestly, this is just such a great book with such an important lesson. I’m not surprised this has won many awards, and I am surprised that it hasn’t won the Newbery (it’s my dream to win that award!). The characters and several of the problems they face are just so relatable. I really related to the main character because she has such a big imagination, which I do too. Trust me, my imagination is probably wild. Crazy. Which may or may not make me absolutely nuts. I don’t know, and I can’t tell.
Anyway, I just absolutely love this book! It has definitely wormed its way into one of my top ten books that I absolutely love! I honestly just can’t find anything wrong with this book! The writing is amazing (although the formatting… you don’t need to indent the paragraph after a chapter heading or a scene break), and the characters were just so relatable. It has such a great lesson/moral to it. The ending was just so heartfelt and sweet/bittersweet. I won’t give away any spoilers, but the ending is just amazing. The last sentence of the book I love! ‘And the secret was this: anything is possible, if only you believe.‘ I just feel like that is so true!
I only have one complaint about this and it isn’t even about the book. Not much. In the acknowledgements, the author spelled Newbery wrong. It’s Newbery with one ‘r’. Not Newberry.
Overall, this book is AMAZING! I love it and highly recommend! This is a must-read, especially for summer. (I don’t know why especially for summer. But to me, it kinda matches the summer vibes I’m getting.) I recommend this to anyone who is… I think 8 to 12, but anyone can read this book. I also recommend this to anyone who has a vivid imagination. I think this wraps up this Book of the Month recommendation. I’m so sorry if this feels rushed, but it’s been a hectic day of writing, and there will probably be several more to come. I hope the next post won’t be ending quite this rushed. Sorry, but thanks for coming and I’ll see you again in the next post!
Isabelle
