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Winter Sky (2014)

by Patricia Reilly Giff(Favorite Author)

3.19 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0385371926 (ISBN13: 9780385371926)

languge

English

genre

Middle Grade & Children's

publisher

Wendy Lamb Books

review 1: Actually this is a very well written book. It is obviously written for a young audience; but the story is solid with some pretty good character development. Siria is a head-strong 12 year old who idolizes her dad and his fire-fighting career. She wants to make sure he is safe by following the fire trucks around to ensure nothing happens to him. During her forays into the winter weather chasing fire trucks she starts to suspect the fires are intentionally set. Through clues and deduction she manages to narrow it down to the right suspects. LOVE the cover. Some chapters start with stories and old Indian legends about stars (astronomy) as she is named after a star. I enjoyed this book.
review 2: Summary:Siria's mother has passed away and she lives ... morewith her father in an apartment. Her father is a firefighter and she doesn't like it when he is called away to fight a fire. In fact, she sneaks out of the apartment and follows the sirens to make sure that all of the firefighters end up okay. As the calls begin to happen more and more often, Siria and her best friend Douglas need to find out if there is an arson in their midst.My thoughts:This is an okay book. I understood the motivations behind the characters based upon a general feeling about them, but Giff does not fully develop each one. This may be because she is writing for a middle grade audience, but she spent more time developing the plot than the characters in it. The mystery is easy to follow and it is clear who the culprit is early on in the novel. Nothing really shocked me, but it may be surprising to a younger reader. I would say that 4th-5th grade would be the target audience. The writing style and language fits that group. The biggest disappointment to me was the ending. I was not satisfied and felt like it was portraying an image that we shouldn't be teaching children. less

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