(no subject)
Kaline Klattermeaster's Tree House by Haven Kimmel. Ages 7-12, Pub date Feb 2007 (?)
This is a difficult book to review, because even after a waiting period, I can't tell you if I even liked the book or not. The back of the book is misleading, the summary describes things that are basically just the last five pages of the book. As this is still and ARC copy (even though it "supposedly" came out over a year ago? Maybe that's a misprint?), I shouldn't comment on the pictures or other formatting but ugh. I hope it changes.
The basic plot is that a spastic child named Kaline is dealing with starting a new school year, his father leaving, and various learning disabilities. Throughout the book you are subjected to his viewpoint, leaving you to piece things together yourself. Kaline calls his mother crazy and says she forgets him in the bathtub, when in reality Kaline's father is horrendously OCD and sets timers for everything, including Kaline's bathtime, so when the father leaves, Kaline can't handle the changes and says his mother does everything wrong. While I think that technique is very effective, the book is also littered with randomly capitalized words and stream of thought consciousness from Kaline, which make the reading difficult and disjointed rather than adding to his voice. I don't think the age levels for this book are very appropriate, the character is 6, which may throw off younger readers in the 7-12 bracket because they don't want to read about BABIES ew, and the subject material isn't all that interesting for many in the older crowd. The best audience may be teachers and caregivers who will appreciate getting in the child's head and can understand the large leaps the narrative takes at times. Younger children may believe what Kaline tells the reader at face value, which would make for a much different and much scarier story.