Author: Erin Dionne
Publication: Dial; 1 edition (January 7, 2010)
Description: Hamlet Kennedy just wants to be your average, happy, vanilla eighth grader. But with Shakespearean scholar parents who dress in Elizabethan regalia and generally go about in public as if it were the sixteenth century, that’s not terribly easy. It gets worse when they decide that Hamlet’s genius sevenyear- old sister will attend middle school with her— and even worse when the Shakespeare project is announced and her sister is named the new math tutor. By the time an in-class recitation reveals that our heroine is an extraordinary Shakespearean actress, Hamlet can no longer hide from the fact that she—like her family—is anything but average.
In a novel every bit as funny as her debut, Erin Dionne has created another eighth grader whose situation is utterly unique—but whose foibles and farces will resound with every girl currently suffering through middle school.
My Thoughts: I thought that this was an excellent and realistic portrayal of middle school and middle school students. I could identify completely with Hamlet and her desire to be "normal" and to fit in to middle school by being completely average. I could easily feel her embarrassment with her parents who live and breathe Shakespeare and her genius younger sister who is going to middle school with her to socialize. The boy-girl dynamics and the shifting nature of friendships also rang true.
This would be a great book for anyone who has dealt with embarrassing parents or siblings or who is dealing with or has dealt with the emotional roller coaster that is middle school.
Challenges: In the Middle Reading Challenge, 2010 YA Reading Challenge, RYOB Reading Challenge
Description: Hamlet Kennedy just wants to be your average, happy, vanilla eighth grader. But with Shakespearean scholar parents who dress in Elizabethan regalia and generally go about in public as if it were the sixteenth century, that’s not terribly easy. It gets worse when they decide that Hamlet’s genius sevenyear- old sister will attend middle school with her— and even worse when the Shakespeare project is announced and her sister is named the new math tutor. By the time an in-class recitation reveals that our heroine is an extraordinary Shakespearean actress, Hamlet can no longer hide from the fact that she—like her family—is anything but average.
In a novel every bit as funny as her debut, Erin Dionne has created another eighth grader whose situation is utterly unique—but whose foibles and farces will resound with every girl currently suffering through middle school.
My Thoughts: I thought that this was an excellent and realistic portrayal of middle school and middle school students. I could identify completely with Hamlet and her desire to be "normal" and to fit in to middle school by being completely average. I could easily feel her embarrassment with her parents who live and breathe Shakespeare and her genius younger sister who is going to middle school with her to socialize. The boy-girl dynamics and the shifting nature of friendships also rang true.
This would be a great book for anyone who has dealt with embarrassing parents or siblings or who is dealing with or has dealt with the emotional roller coaster that is middle school.
Challenges: In the Middle Reading Challenge, 2010 YA Reading Challenge, RYOB Reading Challenge
Sounds like a book I need to check out. Thanks for the awesome review!
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