17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Heaven" Will Make You Feel Like You're on Cloud 9...really., October 18, 2007
A Kid's Review
Imagine a fluorescent orange dodgeball. A dodgeball doesn't do a lot of damage...or does it? Now picture it hurling toward you at rapid speed, and you are glued to the floor, unable to move. Then you're hit, falling to the ground and blacking out. You think you are dead, but you're not, since you're at your favorite mall where you spent most of your time over the years. You have a chance so you can see some choices you made to lead to the mall. This is what happened to Tessa Reynolds, who is the main character in Heaven Looks a Lot like the Mall, by Wendy Mass, which was published just one month ago. Here is the opening paragraph to the novel:
"For fifty cents and a Gobstopper,
I lifted my shirt for the neighborhood boys.
My oldest brother Matt caught us
and chased the boys with a Wiffle bat.
Word got around, and at nine years old
I became the girl
other girls' moms
didn't want them to play with."
This book is unusual because it is written in verse. Normally that would be a story that I'd think it was boring, but this is written and a very simple, easy to follow way. I thought of this like going from elementary school to middle school. Elementary school was okay, but still enjoyable. Middle school is new, different, and more exciting. When I read the first few chapters, I paid attention to the verse often. After a while, I got caught up into the plot, and forgot about the format, written in verse.
"Nail Boy starts taking each object
out of the bag and lining them up
on the counter.
"A white fluffy teddy bear with a red bow around the neck..."
"A box of assorted crayons..."
"A roll of toilet paper..."
"Before me is an odd assortment of my stuff,
most of which I haven't seen or thought of
in years. `What's so special
about these particular things?'
"He holds up the bag. `I'm giving you a chance
to visit the choices you made. The choices
that led you here and-`
`I'm here because someone
fired a dodgeball at my head.'"
This passage shows Tessa discovering the bag of items she bought from the mall. The author's creativity connected the items in the bag to choices Tessa made up to the present. At first, the objects are obscure and innocuous, but Tessa, as well as the readers, soon find their significance. She finds that each item is also related to a store in the mall and to an event in her life. Another reason I loved this book is because of the chapter titles, which related the items with the store Tessa bought it from. Also, on the cover, the author used actual store fonts for the words! Even if the ending in much anticipated and the theme was obvious, I still enjoyed this book so much. Wendy Mass does a wonderful job making the readers feel for Tessa, even id she's not always the most likable person.
In the end, Tessa reevaluated her life when she woke up from her coma from all her mistakes and right actions, knew she should become a better person. She also answered her Big Question, which was "why didn't I duck when the ball came at me?" Tessa knew that there are consequences for her actions, and that she would now live her life differently, yet better.
I strongly recommend this book
because of the chapter titles, the
verse forms, the connections
of ordinary objects, but
most of all,
it's so funny!
It's your choice to
duck when a dodgeball
is hurling towards you,
or do nothing
at
all.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too, September 1, 2007
When 16-year-old Tessa sees the orange dodgeball flying at her from across her high school gym, it never even occurs to her to duck. Soon after, she finds herself floating towards heaven, which looks just like the mall where her parents work and where she has spent a good deal of her life.
She is led to the Lost and Found, where she is given a bag of items: items that she has taken home from the mall during her lifetime, and each item takes her on a journey to her past. She relives several memories, many of which she'd rather forget, and she realizes that it is up to her to sort through her life up until the moment the dodgeball hits her and finally answer the most important question of all.
I really enjoyed HEAVEN LOOKS A LOT LIKE THE MALL, and would definitely recommend it, especially to fans of stories like A CHRISTMAS CAROL. It is written in verse, but if that's not your thing, don't let it stop you! About a quarter of the way through the story I stopped noticing the verse because I was so engrossed in the story, and Wendy Mass does a wonderful job making the reader feel for Tessa, even if she's not always the most likeable person.
Whether you're looking for a fun summer read, an interesting verse novel, or a deeper story about life and death, you shouldn't miss HEAVEN LOOKS A LOT LIKE THE MALL.
Reviewed by: Andie Z.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Celestial Shopping, October 23, 2007
A Kid's Review
Are you in the market for a great read? Well, if you are, then look no further than Heaven is A Lot like the Mall by Wendy Mass. This newly released fictional novel takes the reader on a near death experience with the main character Tess. Tess is a high school junior who has really been letting good life experiences pass her by, and in the process, has failed to figure out who she truly is as a person. In the tradition of Dickens' Christmas Carol, Tess has to maneuver her way through heaven's mall to remember and uncover the meaning of her life thus far with only a bag full of objects and a boy with a gruesome head injury for guidance. This book was nonstop read as I wanted to know what each item in Tess' shopping bag represented. It was also fun to relate to some of Tess' memories; like a first hair cut, making and losing friends, and shopping for prom dresses. Mass' poetic style also made the book a quick read, but not necessarily an easy one. The reader really had an opportunity to dig beneath the surface and try to understand the lessons life teaches. For readers who enjoy a deeper meaning to a story, but also one depicted with a great style and sense of humor, than Tess and her celestial mall is the book for you!
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