What It Is About: Felicity Pickle lives with her mother and sister Frannie Jo. As the novel opens, the three of them have returned to their hometown of Midnight Gulch. This is not a typical town, but one that has a "snicker" of magic. The cast of characters from Midnight Gulch have quite an impact on Felicity and her mother. Felicity becomes friends with Jonah who is an exceptional young boy with quite a powerful "job" that he attends to for the entire town, the people, and their issues. Felicity's mom gets restless and wants to relocate the family (again), but her daughter believes they have finally found home. The entire story moves toward the "DUEL" in which Felicity must perform with her magic of "words." The past members of this town, combined with the current residents, brings everything together in this sweet, quirky, and touching story.
What I Thought Of It: Sometimes it can be hard to read a novel after so many people have read it, raved about it, and given it a definite 5 STARS. The expectations I put on the book might be too high and the book can be hard to live up to those expectations. I completely enjoyed this story, but I don't think I did as much as some of my "Twitter" friends. As I posted on Twitter, this could be more because of me and not the story itself. I'm going through a bit of a reading slump and finding it hard to concentrate and completely enjoy the books I'm reading. I know we all go through this type of reading from time to time. The characters in the book were incredible and top-notch. I enjoyed the tie-in with the history of Midnight Gulch, and the current cast of characters. The story moves a bit slow, but the magical elements keep the reader interested. One of the strongest aspects of the novel is the use of "words" and the creativity of those words.
Who Should Read It: I will be book talking the book tomorrow with my fourth grade readers. There are several members of my class that I have in mind for this book. I had toyed around with the idea of using this book as a read aloud or a possible book club selection, but have decided to let my readers read it on their own. To me this would be the perfect novel for students in grades four through six. It would also make for a "delicious" read aloud with any class in third grade or above. Happy Reading!
Rating: 4 STARS out of 5 Stars
I agree with you about the "book hype" issue. You almost have to decide to always read a book during the hype or close your ears to it! Glad you were able to still enjoy the book :)
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