Finished: April 28
Pages: 479
Okay, so I had heard a lot about the book The Year of Secret Assignments, but never got around to reading it. I didn't even realize that this book was written by the same person until I was quite a ways into it. When my students were at the library choosing books to read, I happened to see this one and thought "Huh, that looks interesting."
I"m not going to say that my initial reaction was wrong, but man, this book was a trip, totally different than I was expecting. Not just because it was written by an Australian, and therefore was a little bit of a culture shock, or because it took me about 100 pages to realize that the setting was Australia, and that was why I was so confused, and then that it was also
Some of the characters I absolutely loved. I adored Listen, and the middle school girl I once was identified totally with the struggles that Listen went through with the horrible girls at her school: Not understanding why the girls don't like her, thinking that it was something that she did, rather than just those girls being awful bitches.
I found the Zing family to be a little too quirky to really appreciate. As much as I enjoyed the craziness of the Zing Family Secret, in the end, it was just too unbelievable for me to really accept. Some of the characters I really enjoyed, but by the end of the novel I just found them to be obnoxious. After a while, I think I just expect people to act like normal human beings, or at least, that they would change and grow as characters. The other main character in the book, a second grade teacher named Cath Murphy, I originally liked quite a bit too, but she made one bad decision after another, and in the end I had little respect for her.
Part of the reason why I decided to read this book was this interaction between two of the characters on the first page:
"Little alien starships! Putting your elevator shafts on our--" She stopped as she reached the wall, and stared at its smooth surface.
"It was just here--" She turned back to Nathaniel, who was waiting patiently.
"Yes?" he prompted.
"Huh."
"Are you awake now?"
"I was sleepwalking."
"I know"
They both stood still in the moonlight.
"It's hot, isn't it?" said the woman, after a moment. "I wonder if we should--"
"It depends on whether Listen is awake," agreed the man, peering into the hallway.
"Yes." The woman raised her voice slightly. "I wonder if she is awake?"
"COULD SHE BE AWAKE?" boomed the man.
"I HOPE WE HAVEN'T WOKEN HER!" shouted the woman.
They both paused hopefully.
A twelve-year-old girl appeared in the hallway, linking into the darkness.
"Hot, isn't it?" said the girl.
The three characters then proceed to break into a middle school swimming pool, and go for a midnight swim. Quirky! I would probably recommend this book to my students, but I'm actually not sure how many, since thinking back, there were several parts of this book are a little more risque then I have perhaps mentioned in my review. Several affairs, and more sexual innuendo than would generally be present in an American young adult book.
Good Reading,
Caitlin
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