Juliet Dove, Queen of Love: A Magic Shop Book
We finished reading this book yesterday. I have to say... surprisingly, we all really enjoyed it.
This book is this month's selection for the library's book club Alex attends. None of us were very sure about it. Alex wasn't sure about reading a book about "love". And I wasn't sure about how appropriate it would be... given that it's a book about love that centers around middle school aged kids. That's how it became our read aloud.
The basic premise of the book is that Juliet is given a magic necklace (once it's on, she can't take it off) that makes boys fall in love with her. The book is about her adventures in trying to free herself from the necklace.
The kids really enjoyed it! They thought the boys following Juliet around were really funny. It helped that Juliet wasn't too impressed with having all of these boys in love with her (she's extremely shy). She gets help on her adventure from two talking rats which the kids enjoyed. She also has help from her younger brother, Byron (who happens to be Alex's age), her little sister, her little sister's imaginary friend and several Greek goddesses. All of this made it very amusing to my two.
However, this book wasn't without some concerns. The first chapter starts out with some "mean girl" stuff. I was a little disheartened, figuring that if it was in the first chapter it would continue throughout the whole book. Thankfully, the "mean girl" stuff was very limited. The other thing is a one line reference nearer the end of the book. One of the girls, jealous of all of the attention Juliet is getting from the boys, makes this comment...
"Well, Killer, you must be giving the boys everything they want!"
This line made my cringe.... but my two had no clue what was referenced. Later in the dialog Juliet asks if everyone thinks she's kissing the boys.
It was a surprisingly good read! I can't wait to see what the next book club book is!
This book is this month's selection for the library's book club Alex attends. None of us were very sure about it. Alex wasn't sure about reading a book about "love". And I wasn't sure about how appropriate it would be... given that it's a book about love that centers around middle school aged kids. That's how it became our read aloud.
The basic premise of the book is that Juliet is given a magic necklace (once it's on, she can't take it off) that makes boys fall in love with her. The book is about her adventures in trying to free herself from the necklace.
The kids really enjoyed it! They thought the boys following Juliet around were really funny. It helped that Juliet wasn't too impressed with having all of these boys in love with her (she's extremely shy). She gets help on her adventure from two talking rats which the kids enjoyed. She also has help from her younger brother, Byron (who happens to be Alex's age), her little sister, her little sister's imaginary friend and several Greek goddesses. All of this made it very amusing to my two.
However, this book wasn't without some concerns. The first chapter starts out with some "mean girl" stuff. I was a little disheartened, figuring that if it was in the first chapter it would continue throughout the whole book. Thankfully, the "mean girl" stuff was very limited. The other thing is a one line reference nearer the end of the book. One of the girls, jealous of all of the attention Juliet is getting from the boys, makes this comment...
"Well, Killer, you must be giving the boys everything they want!"
This line made my cringe.... but my two had no clue what was referenced. Later in the dialog Juliet asks if everyone thinks she's kissing the boys.
It was a surprisingly good read! I can't wait to see what the next book club book is!
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