lcrisostomo's review
3.0
Great book, strong reading for a Juvenile reading, but in all amazing to recognizing patriotism unite in little girl's point of view. It shows how to stand up against a belief, with courage from a young child's point of view. This is a great quick read for someone who is interested in activism.
lindsey_reads06's review
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
readingthroughtheages's review
4.0
The amazing details that went into the world building were fantastic.
the_fabric_of_words's review
5.0
This story can be read as an inspiring tale of rebellion and unquenchable spirit, although both my daughter and I saw shadows of far darker periods of history in the text: Indian Residential Schools, in which Native American children in the US were shipped off to boarding schools to be striped of their language and culture and indoctrinated; Maoist re-education centers; Stalin's gulags; and Nazi concentration camps, just to name a few.
The story is about a girl, Malley, who leads a rebellion of other girls in her "re-education" class. Her kingdom / country, a fictional Milea, has been conquered by the Wealdans, and the girls are resisting being stripped of all the hallmarks of their culture -- their names , they way they plait their hair, their language, their history (they are being forced to act in a play portraying a general, who butchered their people, that portrays him as a hero). They live in a boarding school, separated from their parents and communities, with strict hierarchies that encourage them to turn on one another, further dividing them.
My daughter finished it and handed it to me with an uncharacteristic dark frown, warning me: "The ending is grim."
It is, for all the author meant it to be triumphant. There is no happy ending here. While the story highlights, above all, the optimism of youth, of resistance to being conquered and fighting back, students of history will surmise the girls are headed to their deaths in the final scene. It was disquieting, and rightly so.
A thought-provoking read, and one of the only fiction children's stories like it I've ever seen, that wasn't directly based on historical fact.
Visit my blog for more book reviews, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: https://amb.mystrikingly.com/
The story is about a girl, Malley, who leads a rebellion of other girls in her "re-education" class. Her kingdom / country, a fictional Milea, has been conquered by the Wealdans, and the girls are resisting being stripped of all the hallmarks of their culture -- their names , they way they plait their hair, their language, their history (they are being forced to act in a play portraying a general, who butchered their people, that portrays him as a hero). They live in a boarding school, separated from their parents and communities, with strict hierarchies that encourage them to turn on one another, further dividing them.
My daughter finished it and handed it to me with an uncharacteristic dark frown, warning me: "The ending is grim."
It is, for all the author meant it to be triumphant. There is no happy ending here. While the story highlights, above all, the optimism of youth, of resistance to being conquered and fighting back, students of history will surmise the girls are headed to their deaths in the final scene. It was disquieting, and rightly so.
A thought-provoking read, and one of the only fiction children's stories like it I've ever seen, that wasn't directly based on historical fact.
Visit my blog for more book reviews, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: https://amb.mystrikingly.com/
flordemaga's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
A brutal book. Easy to read but hard to digest because in the end these kids are being tortured. The main character is intolerable at the beginning but not in a way that made me want to stop reading, just in a way that made me want her to change.
The ending is realistic but upsetting but also uplifting.
Would have wanted the author to acknowledge how heavily this leans into the experience of Native American & other Indigenous peoples.
The ending is realistic but upsetting but also uplifting.
Would have wanted the author to acknowledge how heavily this leans into the experience of Native American & other Indigenous peoples.
tjlcody's review
4.0
I have to say, reading this was difficult for a bit; Malley was a difficult character to read for a while because of how agonizingly self-righteous she was about the nature of rebellion and resistance, and how she was the only one doing any resistance worth a damn; those other girls were just being little "knuckleunders" who comply without thinking.
It was very, very satisfying to see her change that way of thinking, and for the book to critique the sensational aspects of heroism: Putting it into a song and making the people who did it out to be fearless heroes who did their good deeds without a second thought, when in reality things were a lot darker and less glorious.
The only thing I would have liked to see was maybe a little more complexity on the Wealdans' side; they (the nuns, the Graycoats, etc) came off as almost cartoony in their villainy sometimes, really easy targets for attack. It would have been interesting to see a little more gray area in there, where maybe some Wealdans protest the treatment of the Mileans; or, maybe, more examination of
Great book, with a very good message about not lording your identity and way of thinking over someone else- regardless of who you are and what it is you're pushing.
It was very, very satisfying to see her change that way of thinking, and for the book to critique the sensational aspects of heroism: Putting it into a song and making the people who did it out to be fearless heroes who did their good deeds without a second thought, when in reality things were a lot darker and less glorious.
The only thing I would have liked to see was maybe a little more complexity on the Wealdans' side; they (the nuns, the Graycoats, etc) came off as almost cartoony in their villainy sometimes, really easy targets for attack. It would have been interesting to see a little more gray area in there, where maybe some Wealdans protest the treatment of the Mileans; or, maybe, more examination of
Spoiler
Nim's family and their Wealdan ancestor.Great book, with a very good message about not lording your identity and way of thinking over someone else- regardless of who you are and what it is you're pushing.
brimrie's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
1.0
bettiespages's review
5.0
It's brutal in the same way as Handmaid's Tale. You spend the whole book desparately hoping for a happy ending and as the end gets closer and closer you know that there will be no happy resolution. Only the brutal reality of standing up for what's right no matter the cost. One small girl will not topple an entire empire. But she will keep the spark alive and that is important too.
spellingbat's review
Interesting premise with lots of good messages about how resistance isn't always big, bold, and attention-grabbing, and the power of working together, but it builds heavily on true experiences from brutally colonized peoples, and there is no reference in an author's note about how it reflects the Native experience in the Americas or indigenous people's experiences in Africa. Middle schoolers will respond to the injustices and the emotional journey of Malley as she figures out what resistance can look like to different people, but will they have the context to see how it fits into US/European history, some not-so-distant?
For Bloomer, it fits well with many themes, but does it relate to treatment because of their gender? There is one throw-away line about Wealdan girls being pretty and delicate while Milean girls work the land, but nothing else is directly related to gender other than them wearing dresses instead of pants. Work tasks aren't gendered, punishments aren't gendered, education doesn't seem gendered. We don't know since the boys are at a different school and Malley has no concept of what happens there.
For Bloomer, it fits well with many themes, but does it relate to treatment because of their gender? There is one throw-away line about Wealdan girls being pretty and delicate while Milean girls work the land, but nothing else is directly related to gender other than them wearing dresses instead of pants. Work tasks aren't gendered, punishments aren't gendered, education doesn't seem gendered. We don't know since the boys are at a different school and Malley has no concept of what happens there.
meganelise's review against another edition
3.0
I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. I felt like it could have been a really great story, but so much of the setup was blatantly taken from the boarding school system imposed on Native Americans, and the author didn’t once acknowledge that. She took the time and space in print to thank someone who helped her in writing a deaf character, but didn’t once mention the actual historical families torn apart by the boarding school system (and then later by the foster care system, let’s be honest here).
There were parts of the book where I got really pulled into the story, and then parts where the characters just felt flat. And then the ending, to me, didn’t feel like enough. It was disappointing.
There were parts of the book where I got really pulled into the story, and then parts where the characters just felt flat. And then the ending, to me, didn’t feel like enough. It was disappointing.