Rating: Not for me

Level: Mid-late Elementary

Things I liked:

  • Mostly non-white characters and non-white culture
  • Builds empathy for kids whose parents are going through divorce
  • Builds empathy for bullying and for bullies themselves
  • Excellent models of self-sacrifice and compassion in friendship

Things I didn’t like:

  • Use of new-age meditation to solve problems
  • Yoga to solve problems
  • Parents arguing and setting a poor example of marriage (although it helped set the tone for the bullet point above that I liked)
  • Emphasis on tv as the best form of entertainment, a grandma who watches TV all day, emphasis on TV shows and their characters
  • Comments that reading isn’t enjoyable but the TV is.

Overall I was on the fence but the bad outweighed the good for me. My son was super interested in it so together we read it and discussed meditation, yoga, and marriage from a God-centered perspective. We also talked about kids going through a parent divorce because the story does a really good job helping you feel the confusion and pain.