The Universe is a vastly strange place. It can bring a group of people from completely different worlds together, and create a string of coincidences so distinct yet so intricate almost no one can comprehend how exactly it happened. Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly is an intriguing, cleverly plotted and heartwarming novel about friendships, personalities, embracing your inner quirkiness and learning to be yourself, all mixed together with a touch of coincidence and that thing we all experience called life. The story is about 4 middle-graders: Virgil, a shy,thoughtful Filipino-American boy filled with folktales told by his Lola and his pet guinea pig Gulliver, Valencia, a determined yet easily underestimated young girl because of her hearing disability, and witty Kaori Tanaka and her little sister Gen, two astrology-obsessed fortune tellers who run a business. As far as they were concerned, they were just normal kids that happened to live in the same neighborhood. Until, Chet Bullens, a notorious bully, traps Virgil and Gulliver in the woods and makes them land up into a well. From there, it is up to Valencia, Kaori and Gen to band together and search for Virgil, and save him before it is too late. Meanwhile, Virgil takes time to reflect on everything, and starts to discover his inner bayani (hero). Will they get to Virgil before it’s too late? And how coincidental really is our universe? I like the fact that the novel has been converted into shorter chapters, or vignettes, each one with different perspectives of the characters. It helps the reader understand where each protagonist is coming from. It also highlights where each character is at the same time, which you don’t normally get to experience in most books. I find this book extremely relatable, filled with situations all of us have experienced at least once, like getting embarrassed in front of people from school, falling out with a friend because their interests have changed or trying to show yourself better than you actually are. People don’t always know what the other characters are feeling at the same moment, and the writer has portrayed that aspect of the story beautifully. Something I especially enjoyed looking at was character development, and how the main conflict changed their personalities, and the aftermath of the whole story panned out really well. I enjoyed reading about Virgil’s perspective the most, mainly because of the inclusion of various Filipino cultures and myths, like Pah, a gigantic bird from lore who was said to eat people. Valencia also proved to be an interesting character, with her interests and eye for detail about the natural environment. With its well-paced plot, intricate character description, extremely vivid imagery and a serene writing style that still keeps you hooked, Hello, Universe is definitely a book I would recommend, especially because everyone can find themselves in the pages of this captivating story. Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly. Greenwillow Books, 2020. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process!
Kind of A Big Deal, Reviewed by Pragnya, 12
How cool would it be to live inside a book? Where everything is planned out for you to have a happy ending. In Kind of A Big Deal, you get to experience what living inside a fantasy really is like! Kind of a Big Deal, written by Shannon Hale, is a beautiful mess of a story about the intricacies of high school, and finding yourself through the power of stories. The protagonist, 18 year old Greek-American Josie Sergakis, had just fallen down from fame. In her words, “there’s nothing worse than peaking in high school.” An aspiring Broadway singer, her choir teacher believed in her talent so much that he sent her to audition in big, bright New York. Unfortunately, her audition failed miserably, the judges dismissing her within the blink of an eye, leaving her alone, lost and with absolutely everything left behind. She decided to move to Missoula, Montana, and grabbed the first job opportunity she could get, babysitting 5 year old preschooler Mia, a superstitious, inquisitive toddler who develops a sisterly bond with Josie throughout the story. One morning, while dropping her off to school, Mia forces Josie into a bookstore, with the superstition that it was unlucky to walk past a bookstore without stepping inside. Not the biggest fan of books, Josie reluctantly steps inside and meets Deo, the charming teenage owner who convinces her to pick up her first book in a long time, The Highwayman Came Riding. But once she turns over the first few pages, she starts to get lost into them-literally! She finds herself as one of the characters, with snippets of her friends from past and present playing supporting roles, and she slowly starts to discover the beauty of books and immerses herself in them. There is a huge variety of books that she finds herself into; romance, dystopian, horror even a graphic novel, and in each one she learns something, either about herself, or on how to grow from her situation, and even we can learn a lot from Josie’s internal adventures, as her situations and characteristics are very relatable. Of course, it all seems too good to be true, and Josie starts to have increasing difficulty with getting out of the books to get back into her real life, and the line between fantasy and reality is rapidly thinning for her. Is she to continue living out her dream life, or stick to the reality everyone is accustomed to? I enjoyed reading about all the characters, with their quirks and delicate personalities that make you remember them for a long time. For example, the contrast between younger 8 year old Josie, broken from her family issues, and the wall or persona she built around herself that seemed to make her look more mature, broke at times, and is a very intriguing sub-plot that readers will definitely want to savor. Her love for singing also shines through in a lot of humorous ways, as she breaks into a medley of “Wannabe” while destroying zombloids with her magenta-coloured powers in a post-apocalyptic zombie world. I can also relate to the protagonist in a lot of ways, specifically the love she starts to develop for reading. For me, it feels like I am doing the reading process all over again, but now along with someone else! This book has a little bit of something for all kinds of readers, romance, mystery, fantasy, action, even comedy at some parts, but I am sure you will feel as though you lived inside a lifetime of books from the second you open this one! Kind of a Big Deal by Shannon Hale. Roaring Brook Press, 2020. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process!
When You Reach Me, Reviewed by Pragnya, 12
Have you ever looked out the window and wished for something extraordinary to happen? Well, in Mira’s case, extraordinary things come looking for her. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead is a perfect portrayal of how extraordinary things can happen in what seemed to be an ordinary life. Set in 1970s New York, the reader follows the engrossing voice of 12-year-old Miranda Sinclair, a curious, imaginative tween, who makes you travel straight into the heart of her life, with a complete tour of the Upper West Side, making you feel part of it. In the beginning, Miranda’s life seems pretty normal until one day, when herself and her best friend Sal were walking back from school, a boy simply walks up and punches Sal in the face. At first, it seems like a simple case of bullying, but ever since the incident, weird things start happening. Miranda’s house key goes missing, and then she gets a mysterious note that says: ‘M, I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own. I ask for two favors. First, you must write me a letter.’ The notes keep on coming, and with increasing weirdness. For example, when she shows the first note to her mother, the second note tells her not to show them to anyone, which meant that she was alone. With further investigation and occurrences that seem more than a simple coincidence with the cryptic notes, the plot slowly starts unravelling, and Miranda, along with us, discovers an eerily fictitious yet somehow realistic mystery involving her interactions with Marcus, the boy who punched Sal, the laughing man-a homeless person living under a mailbox on Miranda’s street, the book A Wrinkle in Time, and a lot more cleverly added details that make you want to scour this book for clues. This book amazes me with its perfect balance between fiction and reality, as it contains all the perfect elements of a typical middle grade novel; friendships, rivalry, even a bit of romance, but it also contains a je-ne-seis-quoi of sorts, with its air of mystique and suspense that just urges you to turn the page over and find out what happens next. Another fascinating thing about this book is its genre. Even though it is labelled as science- fiction, or mystery, I think this phrase from the novel sums it all up perfectly, and that this book explores the depths of ‘life, death and the beauty of it all.’ To say this book is well-written is an understatement, and its coming-of-age story will definitely make you enjoy the book, and I am sure this it will linger in your mind long after you have finished it. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. Yearling Books, 2010. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process!
