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The Categorical Universe Of Candice Phee (2014)

by Barry Jonsberg(Favorite Author)

3.98 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1452133514 (ISBN13: 9781452133515)

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

Chronicle Books

review 1: I'll admit, I opened this book after seeing the cover. I liked the writing style from the first page on, and I realized I wanted to know what happened to Candice.Candice is a bit of an odd duck (her peers caller her SN or "Essen" for Special Needs) but she doesn't often let it bother her. This book chronicles her effort to put her family back together, since the death of her baby sister (in addition to other life events) has left everyone in pieces.
review 2: 3.5 stars. I don't entirely know what to make of this book (which is being published outside Australia as "The Categorical Universe of Candice Phee", which does NOT sound like something a middle grade kid would want to read...). One of the year 6 girls saw me reading it on Friday and described it as "confr... moreonting" (the book, I mean, not the fact that I was reading it). And in a lot of ways, she's right. It IS a confronting story. Candice Phee isn't exactly your run of the mill 12 year old girl. Adults think she's "on the spectrum", and she's clearly been through the special needs department of her school at some point given one of her nicknames. She's a quirky and fascinating and oddly funny character, and I kind of loved her. It's confronting too because of the adults in the book. Yes, they're present and responsible and all of that sort of stuff, but they're also deeply flawed human beings who inadvertently dump all their crap on Candice. Her dad's miserable because he had a fight with his (now rich) brother like a million years ago and he's all bitter and twisted about it. Her mum's majorly depressed because she lost a child to SIDS and then had to have a double mastectomy. And her Rich Uncle Brian uses his money to try and win people's affection. It's confronting not only because of what they've been through but because Candice tries to fix her family's problems. But she's 12 and may or may not be autistic and has no idea what she's doing.Look, I liked it. But I didn't love it. And I think a big part of that was that it seemed like too much to heap on one family. Every time I thought Jonsberg couldn't add another level of look-how-broken-the-Phees-are, he would. And it was kind of overwhelming by the end. I appreciated that it's not a happily-ever-after sort of a story. To have a happily-ever-after when her family are so desperately in need of a therapist or two would be trite. In short, good but not great for me. less

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