Reviews
Victoria Jamieson understands the tween experience. All's Faire in Middle School is about a rather unusual child, one who grows up in a family that acts in a renaissance faire, that manages to tell a very familiar, important tale about growing up. Imogene has been home schooled her entire life, but now that she's getting older, it's off to public school. This book tackles the difficulty of making friends when you are different, bullying, being able to talk about your troubles, acting out, and self-centeredness. It's a literal goldmine of different lessons that are age appropriate and dealt with so well. I appreciate how Jamieson writes protagonists who get to be complex and flawed, and no one solves their problems for them. They have to work through the good and the bad (with advice and support), and learn from the obstacles life throws at them. There were moments in this book where I felt bad for Imogene and wondered what was going through the minds of the adults in her life, but each character seemed to have a story themselves that Imogene herself couldn't see. While I didn't like this one quite as much as Roller Girl, it's still a fantastic addition to any middle school kid's library.
I really enjoyed this read. I loved how this book was structured. I thought this book had such a fun structure using the medieval festival as a the framework of the chapters. I thought his book really represented so many issues that come up in middle school and found it to be refreshing read. I really enjoyed the art style and this book just put a smile on my face. I really loved the concept of this novel. It was such a fun read and grew to love the main character and i felt like this story could happen in any middle school and most students could relate to this character. I hope to read more by this author in the future.
I read this book quickly. While enjoyable, I found it average in all respects except for the actual graphics. These were fantastic! I really enjoyed Jamieson's illustrations and her subtle hints at bigger issues, like Imogene's father always playing the bad guy, a brown person, and Kit, the blonde, Nordic looking young man, always playing the hero. I think many of my students would enjoy reading this and would actually read it, since there's pictures of course. I would definitely recommend it to my students. To others? I would not recommend against it, just state again that everything about it is average, nothing extraordinary.
This was really cute.
