Customer Reviews

Bloomability

5 star:		(142)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I've read Walk Two Moons, Chasing Redbird, and Absolutely Normal Chaos, and I liked Bloomability more than any of those three. I do have to agree that there didn't seem to be much plot, but it kind of added to the 'real-life' quality of the book--in real life there isn't a plot.

The main thing I loved about this book is how you can experience Dinnie's year in the boarding school in Switzerland. I liked all the little things that were included; the 'thinking' homework, the descriptions of teachers, how the students from all different countries acted towards eachother, the short weekend trips Dinnie went on, the letters from aunts, etc. I was in raptures because of the beautiful setting, and I loved all the Italian words that were thrown in.

The character descriptions were really interesting, and I think the characters were one of the strong points of this book. While Dinnie herself didn't seem to have much of a strong personality one way or another, Guthrie and Lila were both very opposite personalities, but still both very strong ones.

I have to disagree with anyone who thinks there wasn't enough romance in this book. These kids are only 13, remember? I thought the little bit was just the right amount. (Besides, it didn't seem like there was a whole lot more romance in Sharon Creech's other books.)

I reccommend this book to girl aroung Dinnie's-and my-age, especially if you have an interest in Switzerland, or have ever wanted to go to a boarding school yourself.

Bloomability struck me as a remarkably unique book. I love Sharon Creech and all of her books. I'm not sure I have a favorite. This particular one made me think more than the others. Although my life couldn't compare to Domenica Santolina Doone's, some of her thoughts match mine. Domenica is "kidnapped" by her aunt and uncle and taken to Switzerland. She goes to a school there and makes lots of friends, two of which are Guthrie and Lila. Guthrie is someone who loves the world enormously and expresses it all the time, while Lila is a very difficult person who complains a lot. Even so they're all friends. What I loved most about this book was the way Sharon Creech phrased Domenica's thoughts and feelings. For example, Domenica feels like she's in a bubble, seperated from the rest of the world. Creech divides sections of Domenica's life into "her first life" and "her second life." I think it's amazing how many well thought metaphores and similies she includes in this book. She also includes some of Domenica's dreams, a very nice addition. Bloomability is a quick, interesting, and entertaining read.

BLOOMABILITY was my first book from Sharon Creech and i have to say i've never read a book with a plot so original and interesting and of course, entertaining. The first few chapters were kind of confusing and uninteresting, but eventually, from the views of Dinnie, i learned to love this book. It's a MUST read!

I read Bloomability nearly TEN years ago and it has remained one of my favorite novels. It's a great story about a young girl (Dinnie) who gets uprooted from the world she's always known - it's not a world of particular stability, and she's often been forced to into situations where she has to adapt but she's always had her family (crazy as they are) around her. Now Dinnie is being whisked away to Switzerland for a better opportunity and a new life at a new school and she is as scared, upset, and resistant as any one of us would be. But at the same time, she's a very adaptable girl and slowly learns to accept her surrounding, make friends where others make enemies, and shows her gentle, kind, accepting nature.

I read this book after I moved across the USA when I was 12 and I felt much like Dinnie did. But I loved being able to immerse myself in this world with these flamboyant and unique characters and the world they inhabited. All these characters are believable and exciting, yet uniquely flawed as we all are, "grouchy" Lila who hides her insecurities, wild outgoing Guthrie whose adventurous spirit gets him into trouble, posh!Belen who loves dorky!Keisuke but has to keep their relationship a secret, Japanese Keisuke who invents the term "Bloomability" out of a misunderstanding/mispronunciation of the English words. To imagine and recreate their own adventures in my mind - I don't think I'll ever look at a snowy mountain top and not think of how Dinnie thought of gelato ice cream back home with her family interspersed on that image.

How ridiculous crappy movies get made all the time and this one hasn't is beyond me frankly~

This is the best book I have read in a while; it is really a breath of fresh air. The characters are more complex, and the story line is more interesting, than any of her past books. Therefore I don't recommend it to novice readers. It is true beauty.

Will I ever see my family again, Dinnie wonders as her plane lifts from the ground of the U.S. Her bottom lip trembles as she asks her aunt and uncle where the three of them are going. Her brain bursts like a bomb when they answer...........
Switzerland.
The thirteen year old travels the landscape with her new foreign friends. She worries that she is getting too close to them. Dinnie thinks that her parents let her aunt and uncle take her away because they knew she could adapt easily to a new school and new friends. She got used to being adaptable when her family moved every 6 months, but she never learned a thing at her schools. Since she is adapting her aunt and uncle might not take her back to her parents.
Is not adapting the answer to her problem? If not, what is? Will she ever see her family again? Why did her parents let them take her away? Did they want her to leave? Help find the answers to these questions by reading Bloomability by Sharon Creech.

I picked up this book expecting a story about a mature teenager who is trying to find her "bloomabilities". But I think i had the wrong expectations. This book lost me within the first 50 or so pages. There were too many characters and i felt the story moved too quickly. I just don't think this was the book for me, but younger teens will probably like it better than i did.

I liked how the book was worded but it went a little too slow. It wasn't really exciting because it was just about an ordinary school year of a girl who happened to have lived in various places, and how traveling to a boarding school changed her life. The book dragged a great deal at the parts that had their main focus on Lila. She was a very boring character; in my opinion.

This book annoyed me more than most any book I've read in years. I really failed to see what the message was the author was trying to make. Perhaps that many of life's problems can be solved if you have the money or the luck to somehow be sent to a fancy boarding school abroad? Or that rich people who have travled the world have much more insight and are much deeper and more interesting than us poor folks? Or that if you have the money to get really into skiing, it will change your life? The most annoying part of all for me was the strange letters sent to Dinnie from her relatives back home. They seem to me to serve no purpose but to show us how narrow and boring "regular" folk are. I must admit I have not read other works by this author, and maybe that made a difference in how I viewed this book, and I must admit the writing itself was skilled, but I really would not recommend this book to anyone.

Dinni's family have always moved around "The States" because their father has always been searching for a new job. Her family is her mother and father and her older brother Crick and older sister Stella. When ever they would move to a new place Crick would always find himself bad friends and get into trouble with them and Stella would always be chased by boys. Finaly one day Dinni's aunt and uncle take her to live in Switzerland with them. Dinni's uncle was a school's headmaster, and that was the school Dinni had to go to. In the school there were lots of different groups of people, like japanese and chineses and italian. There Dinni didn't feel like she was an outcast because everyone else was different just like her.
I really lioked this book because it seems very interesting. Like seeing a whole new life by reading this book. You just read this book and see it all really happening.
The characters were very lively and enjoying! But one character always annoyed me. Lila. She was such a pain and a racist! She needed everone to be american! Lila was just an annoying character and always was so mean to Dinni and all the immigrant students! I really hated her out of the whole book!
Readers you should really read this book. It is very interesting, especially to immigrants or travelers. It isn't about a typical boring girl's life, it's about a nomad finaaly settleing down away from her family and learning in a totaly different school. So take time and read this enjoying book. ^-^