So, I'm on the MSBA committee and the Cybils Middle Grade Fiction committee. For the most part there is overlap. If I read a book for Cybils I can review it for MSBA. But what about the other MSBA possibilities. This is where The Real Boy comes in. There has been a lot of buzz about it and I had it in my school library. I felt I owed it to the book and to MSBA to read it. Sorry Cybils...I will read a bunch of those nominees this weekend too.
Wow...seriously...wow.
I loved the book. I have to admit that at first, even though I liked it, it was slow going until page 200 and the first big reveal. It is an issue I have had repeatedly this year...some books are just too long. Will my readers hang in through page 200 or set it aside before it really gets good. Not that it wasn't good until then...it was just a slow, gentle uphill to that point. Then it really started going. I had heard the book compared to Pinocchio so I think I figured out things earlier than a reader might who had not heard that comparison. Is that what kept me going.
I loved the characterization. Some say that Oscar is too stereotypical - Aspergers or Autistic but I felt his character was more well rounded than others I have read this year. Others question his relationship with Callie - why would she like and befriend him? Why does anyone like or befriend someone - does the reason have to be spelled out?
Sure there may be questions at the end...that's what keeps the reader thinking and pondering. I hate when things are tied up neatly anyway.
Again this is perhaps the best book I have read all year....
READIT READIT
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