Smiles to Go, by Jerry Spinelli, was one of my book fair purchases. As has become the routine, I finished the fourth Percy book and didn't have the fifth at home with me, so I grabbed this one off the shelf. I bought it on a whim that day at the book fair; I hadn't ever heard about it but the name of Jerry Spinelli caught my attention - I've heard so much about him but never read any of his books - and the summary on the back of the book intrigued me. Despite what I thought was a slowish start, I really loved this book. The characters were sincere and relateable, and I laughed out loud all throughout the story as topics such as friendship, sibling fighting and the woes of unreturned crushes pester the main character. A tragic but realistic surprise towards the end of the book endears you to the characters even more (even in the face of somewhat predictable responses to the tragedy) and the final pages even made me cry. As my first Jerry Spinelli book, I was thoroughly impressed, and am now extremely interested in reading some more of his work. Any suggestions?
I read Stargirl early in college and don't remember liking it very much, if at all. So there's a totally not helpful suggestion :)
ReplyDeleteGood to know. I had been meaning to add it to my list. So maybe I'll still add it but not rush to it :)
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