Tamara’s Comments (group member since Jan 14, 2021)

Tamara’s comments from the ARTBA 2021 group.

This is a great little comic that shows how people who are considered weird or outsiders to others find their way to each other. It was whimsical and fun.

I adored art and the characters, especially Snapdragon and Lulu. Oh, and Good Boy, of course.

5/5

I appreciated the author's writing style. I think I'll try another book by her, but this book just dragged. I liked some of the aspects; Sophie getting a clockwork heart and the creatures including giant spiders and ladybugs are some of them. However, a lot of the book was Sophie and other characters wandering around in the woods.

Donnelly does try to portray the stepmother as another victim in a grand scheme instead of just hating "Snow White" because she's prettier, which was also good. I just didn't connect with the characters 2.5 / 5

I also think this is an important book. It's one of the top 10 most banned books this year, so it must be doing something right. 5/5

I've read everything Acevedo has put out and I know that she really connects with teens as her work has been on several teen book list winners. She did another great job with this one. I always suggest listening to novels in verse because they're more impactful that way. 5/5

This is a heartwarming and heartbreaking book--all tied into the same pages, sometimes even the same panel. This is an amazing read to create sympathy and empathy for your fellow human being. There were certain points that made a little lump form in my throat because of how unfair the world is to people who don't deserve it.

I definitely was reading books like this at that age, but not in GN form, which I feel like is even more potent in creating empathy. 5/5

I listened to this book, so I'm not sure if that had any effect on my thoughts, but I feel like this book kinda rambled on. I'd had some hopes for it when it first started off because I do want a really good kick-butt pirate book and haven't found one yet. Then, it fell off and I started to lose interest. I guess I expected more swashbuckling. 3/5

Yadriel was absolutely adorable. The plot was fun and full of Latinx mythos that was interesting to learn about. I know this has been a super popular read with some teens. 5/5

I enjoyed this as a light read to listen to in the background. I was expecting Sabriel-level wonderfulness, but it fell flat in comparison. However, I think it was a good book that will appeal to fantasy readers. 3.5/5

I'm not interested in basketball at all, but I thought this was really fascinating. I could see how this would connect with teens who like sports, but are maybe reluctant readers. I could also seen teens who like graphic novels picking it up because of who the author is. 4/5

Thanks for working so hard on this!

Have emails been sent to people to let them know what levels they are a part of? I’m not sure if I got one.