taylorzart's review against another edition
5.0
There's nothing like revisiting a Sharon Creech book to recenter yourself.
This one isn't as deeply embedded in my memory as Walk Two Moons and The Wanderer, nor does it pack as hard of an emotional punch, but I think it might be the ideal Creech to revisit as an adult. Bloomability reminds you of the power of possibility - the terrifying and thrilling feeling of standing at a precipice. I found myself dreaming bigger as I read this book. And considering what it means to feel truly free - to be bloomable.
This one isn't as deeply embedded in my memory as Walk Two Moons and The Wanderer, nor does it pack as hard of an emotional punch, but I think it might be the ideal Creech to revisit as an adult. Bloomability reminds you of the power of possibility - the terrifying and thrilling feeling of standing at a precipice. I found myself dreaming bigger as I read this book. And considering what it means to feel truly free - to be bloomable.
jdglasgow's review against another edition
3.0
I thought CHASING REDBIRD was excellent and WALK TWO MOONS was extraordinary, so I had high hopes going into BLOOMABILITY, my third Sharon Creech book. Unfortunately, this is definitely the weakest of the three. Though it has some of the hallmarks of her work, it never hit any of the emotional or literary highs, for me, that the others did.
The book follows a young girl, Domenica “Dinnie” Doone, who is sent to Switzerland to attend an international school run by her uncle and aunt after her older siblings each make a mess of their lives (her brother by getting involved in crime, her sister by getting involved in birthing a baby). Dinnie is, at the start, somewhat at a loss for who exactly she is or where she belongs. Over the course of the book she develops a better sense of her identity and comes to live in the moment—Víva! Libera! She also, as is a continuing theme with Creech, comes to realize that other people around her have full lives of their own with struggles and backstory which informs their behavior and personality in ways that are not always apparent. Lila, for instance, feels like almost the same character as Phoebe in WALK TWO MOONS: she’s tough to be around and self-centered, but underneath it is… well, if not trauma then at least some difficulty. I suppose it is a little hard to feel sorry for a bunch of rich kids because they have absent parents but people are people.
There isn’t as much of the almost poetic language I’m used to seeing from Creech. I don’t know how to describe it exactly—just sort of blunt, oddly profound or lovely statements. There are a couple of things that stuck out to me here, though I wouldn’t call either of them profound. First is a dream Dinnie has (the book is filled with little asides about “the dreams of Domenica Santolina Doone”, though most don’t seem necessary or all that revealing). In the dream, she imagines herself as an anchovy. She wants to call out for help, but she says, “I wasn’t a talking anchovy.” I can’t explain it but I really liked that sentence. The other thing is that when Dinnie first comes to Switzerland she feels she’s been kidnapped and tries to write notes to put in the window reading “KIDNAPPED!” or “HELP!”, using the aid of an English to Italian dictionary (even though they are in Switzerland the predominant language is Italian—don’t ask me why). Her aunt and uncle read her signs and say things like, “I think what you wrote means ‘Help yourself’, as though you are inviting burglars into the house. Is that what you meant?” Their nonjudgmental, soft “Is that what you meant?” is nice and it really comes together later on when Dinnie writes a card that reads “LOTTANTE”. Her aunt reads it and asks, “Doesn’t that mean ‘struggling’? Is that what you meant?” To which Dinnie replies, “Yep.” Her aunt pats her head and tries to console her. It’s a nice moment made better by the lead-up to it.
The rest of the book is fine and good. I didn’t really feel drawn to many of the other characters. There is a memorable scene where Dinnie and a boy Guthrie run a public obstacle course. And there is of course a dramatic climactic moment on a mountain. I’ll not say too much about this to avoid spoiling it except that I guess it’s supposed to be the moment where Dinnie comes into her own but, I dunno, it didn’t really read that way to me. Much of the book, though, is just kind of her day-to-day at the school. Very slice of life, just observational stuff about the way people behave, along with her worries about her parents and siblings back home: have they forgotten me? Am I betraying them by being happy here? It is nice. From the Goodreads reviews I read before rating the book, I saw numerous people who read it as a child and who said that it really stuck with them. I can see that. I don’t think it was bad, not at all, it just didn’t have the same immediacy for me as the others I’ve read from this author. When I read WALK TWO MOONS I kind of knew pretty immediately that it was going to be 5-stars. I didn’t feel that way about BLOOMABILITY. And I don’t think it’s just a personal preference thing, I believe it really is weaker. Take, for instance, the meaning of the title: bloomability is a non-English speaking character’s way of saying “possibility”; again, it’s a sweet sentiment but doesn’t really feel rooted in the story, not really. Despite being a bit let down by this one, I’ve got ABSOLUTELY NORMAL CHAOS at home and I am still excited about reading it next.
The book follows a young girl, Domenica “Dinnie” Doone, who is sent to Switzerland to attend an international school run by her uncle and aunt after her older siblings each make a mess of their lives (her brother by getting involved in crime, her sister by getting involved in birthing a baby). Dinnie is, at the start, somewhat at a loss for who exactly she is or where she belongs. Over the course of the book she develops a better sense of her identity and comes to live in the moment—Víva! Libera! She also, as is a continuing theme with Creech, comes to realize that other people around her have full lives of their own with struggles and backstory which informs their behavior and personality in ways that are not always apparent. Lila, for instance, feels like almost the same character as Phoebe in WALK TWO MOONS: she’s tough to be around and self-centered, but underneath it is… well, if not trauma then at least some difficulty. I suppose it is a little hard to feel sorry for a bunch of rich kids because they have absent parents but people are people.
There isn’t as much of the almost poetic language I’m used to seeing from Creech. I don’t know how to describe it exactly—just sort of blunt, oddly profound or lovely statements. There are a couple of things that stuck out to me here, though I wouldn’t call either of them profound. First is a dream Dinnie has (the book is filled with little asides about “the dreams of Domenica Santolina Doone”, though most don’t seem necessary or all that revealing). In the dream, she imagines herself as an anchovy. She wants to call out for help, but she says, “I wasn’t a talking anchovy.” I can’t explain it but I really liked that sentence. The other thing is that when Dinnie first comes to Switzerland she feels she’s been kidnapped and tries to write notes to put in the window reading “KIDNAPPED!” or “HELP!”, using the aid of an English to Italian dictionary (even though they are in Switzerland the predominant language is Italian—don’t ask me why). Her aunt and uncle read her signs and say things like, “I think what you wrote means ‘Help yourself’, as though you are inviting burglars into the house. Is that what you meant?” Their nonjudgmental, soft “Is that what you meant?” is nice and it really comes together later on when Dinnie writes a card that reads “LOTTANTE”. Her aunt reads it and asks, “Doesn’t that mean ‘struggling’? Is that what you meant?” To which Dinnie replies, “Yep.” Her aunt pats her head and tries to console her. It’s a nice moment made better by the lead-up to it.
The rest of the book is fine and good. I didn’t really feel drawn to many of the other characters. There is a memorable scene where Dinnie and a boy Guthrie run a public obstacle course. And there is of course a dramatic climactic moment on a mountain. I’ll not say too much about this to avoid spoiling it except that I guess it’s supposed to be the moment where Dinnie comes into her own but, I dunno, it didn’t really read that way to me. Much of the book, though, is just kind of her day-to-day at the school. Very slice of life, just observational stuff about the way people behave, along with her worries about her parents and siblings back home: have they forgotten me? Am I betraying them by being happy here? It is nice. From the Goodreads reviews I read before rating the book, I saw numerous people who read it as a child and who said that it really stuck with them. I can see that. I don’t think it was bad, not at all, it just didn’t have the same immediacy for me as the others I’ve read from this author. When I read WALK TWO MOONS I kind of knew pretty immediately that it was going to be 5-stars. I didn’t feel that way about BLOOMABILITY. And I don’t think it’s just a personal preference thing, I believe it really is weaker. Take, for instance, the meaning of the title: bloomability is a non-English speaking character’s way of saying “possibility”; again, it’s a sweet sentiment but doesn’t really feel rooted in the story, not really. Despite being a bit let down by this one, I’ve got ABSOLUTELY NORMAL CHAOS at home and I am still excited about reading it next.
jammiee_x's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
bibielle's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
elelove7's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
annabelle42688's review
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book was even better the second time around. Glad I reread it.
missprint_'s review against another edition
3.0
Preface to the review: I have to admit that it took a lot of trolling around before I found a book to review this Wednesday. It's not that I don't have a lot of as yet un-reviewed books that I like. The problem is I read some of them a long time ago. The other problem is that while a lot of them feature very obviously awesome/strong female characters, many of them are written by men. Which is great. It's just given me pause because my initial plan was books with strong female characters written by women authors. Given my recent difficulties, though, I have decided to lift the female author rule because it's just getting too hard. That said, I apparently read this book in 2001 but only realized it after checking if it was on my goodreads account as read. To be fair, 2001 was squarely during my "book-a-day" reading phase so my forgetting it might say more about me than about the book. But in the spirit of full-disclosure I thought that you, my readers, should have the full story. And now you do. (And, in the sake of even fuller disclosure, the review was late because I wound up rereading the entire book and it took longer than I thought.)
Sharon Creech won the Newbery Medal for “the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children" in 1994 for her novel Walk Two Moons. Bloomability, from 1998, is one of Creech's later novels for children.
Thirteen-year-old Domenica Santolina Doone, known to almost everyone as Dinnie, does not have what most people would consider a mundane life, let alone an average one.
"In my first life, I lived with my mother, and my older brother and sister, Crick and Stella, and with my father when he wasn't on the road."
As Dinnie's father, a Jack-of-all-trades by name and choice, moves across the country in search of new "opportunities," Dinnie and her family follow.
"By the time I was twelve, we'd followed my father from Kentucky to Virginia to North Carolina to Tennessee to Ohio to Indiana to Wisconsin to Oklahoma to Oregon to Texas to California to New Mexico. My things fit in one box."
There was also a stint in Arkansas so brief that it escaped Dinnie's recollection. As some readers might have guessed, this lifestyle did not always work out for the family. The crux of the novel begins when Dinnie makes this series of observations:
"Dad was on the road, Crick was in jail, and Stella was having a baby.
And that was the last week of my first life."
That's when Dinnie is kidnapped by two complete strangers. At least, that's how it seems to Dinnie. No one else seems to agree. But, just because she met her Aunt Sandy and Uncle Max twice before, it doesn't make them like her real family. At least, not right away.
Dinnie's aunt and uncle take her off to Switzerland for an opportunity of her own as a student the school where Max will be headmaster and Sandy a teacher. At first, Dinnie doesn't see how any of that is an opportunity. But then she gets to the school and starts to meet some of the other students. Coming from all over the world, and from many different cultures, everyone is different. For the first time in Dinnie's life, she isn't the only stranger. Miles away from her family and in a foreign country, Dinnie might finally have a chance to find herself.
Along the way, she also finds friends (and family) that she never would have encountered anywhere else. Creech does a great job here of showing different cultures. The book is a nice example of a truly international book. It also might teach readers a thing or two about the importance of tolerance. In fact, I'm sure it could be used in a variety of classes as a teaching tool even if I can't get into all of the ideas in this review. It's also written in a very authentic, humorous voice.
The title of this book, Bloomability, refers to possibilities--a recurring theme in the novel. Dinnie isn't happy about a lot of the things she has to do, but as she soon learns, every change is an opportunity and a new possibility. On a personal level, this book is actually a really relevant review for the week, and I'm sure most other readers would also find it has some valuable insight to offer during times of change.
Sharon Creech won the Newbery Medal for “the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children" in 1994 for her novel Walk Two Moons. Bloomability, from 1998, is one of Creech's later novels for children.
Thirteen-year-old Domenica Santolina Doone, known to almost everyone as Dinnie, does not have what most people would consider a mundane life, let alone an average one.
"In my first life, I lived with my mother, and my older brother and sister, Crick and Stella, and with my father when he wasn't on the road."
As Dinnie's father, a Jack-of-all-trades by name and choice, moves across the country in search of new "opportunities," Dinnie and her family follow.
"By the time I was twelve, we'd followed my father from Kentucky to Virginia to North Carolina to Tennessee to Ohio to Indiana to Wisconsin to Oklahoma to Oregon to Texas to California to New Mexico. My things fit in one box."
There was also a stint in Arkansas so brief that it escaped Dinnie's recollection. As some readers might have guessed, this lifestyle did not always work out for the family. The crux of the novel begins when Dinnie makes this series of observations:
"Dad was on the road, Crick was in jail, and Stella was having a baby.
And that was the last week of my first life."
That's when Dinnie is kidnapped by two complete strangers. At least, that's how it seems to Dinnie. No one else seems to agree. But, just because she met her Aunt Sandy and Uncle Max twice before, it doesn't make them like her real family. At least, not right away.
Dinnie's aunt and uncle take her off to Switzerland for an opportunity of her own as a student the school where Max will be headmaster and Sandy a teacher. At first, Dinnie doesn't see how any of that is an opportunity. But then she gets to the school and starts to meet some of the other students. Coming from all over the world, and from many different cultures, everyone is different. For the first time in Dinnie's life, she isn't the only stranger. Miles away from her family and in a foreign country, Dinnie might finally have a chance to find herself.
Along the way, she also finds friends (and family) that she never would have encountered anywhere else. Creech does a great job here of showing different cultures. The book is a nice example of a truly international book. It also might teach readers a thing or two about the importance of tolerance. In fact, I'm sure it could be used in a variety of classes as a teaching tool even if I can't get into all of the ideas in this review. It's also written in a very authentic, humorous voice.
The title of this book, Bloomability, refers to possibilities--a recurring theme in the novel. Dinnie isn't happy about a lot of the things she has to do, but as she soon learns, every change is an opportunity and a new possibility. On a personal level, this book is actually a really relevant review for the week, and I'm sure most other readers would also find it has some valuable insight to offer during times of change.
miranderkooy's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
megpsmit's review against another edition
4.0
This book is a good read if you have ever been around international schools or have moved a lot. It is about a girl who moves to Switzerland to live with her aunt and uncle while going to school. The story was cute and fun to read as she learned about herself and others. I didn't really love the way that families were portrayed in this book and I didn't like how she was wisked away from her family.
ten2030's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book was my personality when i was 10 and i’m so close to making it my personality now. too good!!!