Customer Reviews

Knots in My Yo-Yo String

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is so great! It tells all about Jerry Spinelli's childhood in big events in his life. It is very humerous and touching. It talks about his dreams and accomplishments as a kid and how they effected him as a person and as an author. I highly recommend you read this book!

Knots in my yo-yo string is a great book.This novel is about the one and only Jerry Spinelli and his childhood.The most interesting chapter to me was, When I Was King.The reason that chapter was interesting to me was that,it fun to hear about a great author being elected for class president.I give this book 4 stars out of 5 because, first when i was reading the book, i didn't like it.But as i kept reading the book, i started to like it more when i got to the middle of the book. I recormmend this book to children and adults who likes to biographies.This is a great book about a childhood of the marvelous Jerry Spinelli.

Knots in My Yo-Yo String is a book that tells of childhood memories. It is definitely geared towards younger readers; it would be the perfect read for a child around 12 years of age. The author, Jerry Spinelli, has done an exquisite job of capturing what most children experience during their short period of innocence. His memories are conveyed to the reader in a most descriptive way, and he requires the reader to think about what they have read. He never ends a chapter on a boring sentence; it is always a conclusive sentence that is usually quite witty. Some of his stories are so interesting that you wish you could go back in time and experience the same things he did but in your own childhood.
The majority of his most pleasant memories took place while he was in junior high school. I would say that he wrote of his preteen teen years, 10 to 12, more than any other time in his life. The author also wrote about his teenage memories but those were less pleasant and less numerous.
This book highlights how successful Jerry was among his fellow peers. He always seemed to be better than everyone else: he was athletic, he was very popular, and he was much more intelligent than the average student. The tale is constantly action filled with Jerry exploring and learning essential lessons in his childhood. The story is one big quest for Jerry to be happy and throughout the whole book it seems that he is happy and true to himself.
The book starts out with his dog being struck by a car; it then goes back to his early childhood and all the events that led up to the tragic accident. Then in the final chapter the story resumes at the point were Jerry is standing over the dead dog. The dog being slain represents the troubles Jerry encountered as soon as he enters high school. When Jerry reaches this new school, all his prior achievements meant nothing and he was forced to start from scratch. Several events happened to Jerry during this transition the drastically eroded his confidence. His girlfriend decided to discontinue the relationship, he struggle to grasps the concepts of his academics, and he was no longer the superior athlete. The worst thing that happened during those trying times was when his family departed from their neighborhood and decided it was time to move to another neighborhood.
Jerry then finds what he loves to do. He starts to write poetry in his 11th grade year and soon things turn around for Jerry, as he is happy once again. Jerry then goes on to tell about how he wrote the novel Manic Magee, a story based off of a childhood friend. The success of Manic Magee has made Jerry a financial secure writer.
This book connected with me because some of the events that he experienced as a child were similar to events that happened during my adolescence. Jerry Spinelli does a great job of making this book an interesting and eventful read for his target audience, children, while also telling of some important moral issues. The moral issues that occurred in this book made me remember of something dishonest I did as a child and it made my remember how bad I felt and how bad I still feel about the incident. So, I enjoyed this autobiography and I hope that you find a little bit of time to read this short adventure.

Jerry Spinelli's autobiography is interesting and funny. He takes the reader back to the magical days of his childhood. He was a runner and a sports player. He was the perfectionist who colored inside the lines. He didn't like to read regular books but loved comic books and the sports section in the newspaper. He holds the reader's attention with his attention to detail. While reading about his neighborhood and life, the reader becomes well aware that many of these details are what he uses when he writes his books. If you're lucky, his descriptions remind you of that time in your life when you were young and the most important thing at the moment was watching a turtle cross the road. A well-written, engaging account that middle grade students will be able to relate to. Students should find interest in the fact that much of Spinelli's writing success comes from using the memories of his childhood. The only criticism is with the book's title and cover. Students might need to look beyond these two unexciting items to get started.

The best part of the adventurous book Knots in My Yo - Yo String is were Jerry Spinelli he learns a great lesson that you can't always be the best that you always want to be but you can always work up to it and I think that this is a very important thing to know. In this book you also learn other things like that there's always one moment in your life that your life feel like it's falling apart even if your only learning a lesson. I think that these are really important thing to always know. I think that this book is great for kids that like to learn new things and that like action, drama and real life situations. I would recommend this book for kids from the ages of 10 to 16 because this book has things about all of these ages and how some things change as you get older. I think that all kids should read this book no matter what kind of books you usually read. Because I think that you would enjoy this book as well besides the books that you are use to. So try something new and get out of your shell and brake out of the ordinary. So if you have the time to go to your local library go and get this action packed book Knots in My Yo - Yo String written by the author Jerry Spinelli right now and get ready to fill your brain with ideas and thoughts.
By: Ben

I found Jerry Spinelli's Knots in My Yo-Yo String to be fun, creative, and very kid-friendly. It was put into words that young children can refer to. Jerry found a love for cowboys and cowboy television shows and he dressed up as "Lash La Rue", a cowboy dressed in all black, who had a whip. Not much later, Jerry found an interest in playing shortstop in baseball and that was when he became an all-out sports nut. In middle school, Spinelli was a perfectionist who always "colored in the lines." He only talked back to a teacher once in his life and apologized and was forgiven. Jerry was in ninth grade when the most popular girl in his grade, Judy Pierson was his girlfriend. They went to the ninth grade prom together as king and queen of the prom. Unfortunately, Jerry's social life with girls was a disaster in tenth grade when Judy dumped him, and it was a snowball effect after that. His dog, Lucky, was hit by a car on Johnson Highway on one of the only sunny days of that year. Jerry Spinelli lived on George Street in the West End of Norristown, Pennsylvania with his mom, dad, his brother Bill, and dog Lucky. Jerry lived here for ten years; from the 1950's to the 1960's. He grew up to be an author and not just any author, a Newbery Medalist. He now lives in North Dakota and he has written books like Maniac Magee and Crash. Jerry Spinelli overcame his biggest obstacle: childhood; from punching an innocent kid to finding maggots in the bowl of leftovers that his family ate for dinner! Today, he is one of the greatest authors ever!

Written at their level, and talking about things they can relate to, Spinelli spins a story that encourages kids to think about the value of their family relationships, their friends, and their town. It gives them the kind of perspective that usually only comes when looking back years later. My child is in 6th grade and it was at a good level for her.

I read this book to see if it would connect the dots of Mr. Spinelli's other books. It sure does! I am from the next generation, but really enjoyed it as an interesting reflection. YA's won't get it all, but the parents of YA's probably will. I found myself engrossed in trying to visualize the Norristown, PA that he grew up in. A very enjoyable read. May or may not suggest what happens after his book "Jason and Marceline" ends.

Knots in my yoyo strings
By Jerry Spinelli.

From playing baseball to losing girlfriends, playing basketball to making new friends, this is a book written by Jerry Spinelli called Knots in my yoyo strings. It's an autobiography of Jerry Spinelli.
He is a famous writer and has written many other books.
This is one book that I guarantee you will take you on one of the biggest adventures you've ever been on. if you even only read this book halfway through the book will just pull you in and you just cant stop reading it. Plus this book is really popular and over one million people have read it so if you're interested in reading this book then great and if you're lucky sometimes this book has a surprise in it if that kind of person.

I thought that this was a great book about growing up in the 1950's. The author tells about his first girlfriend, the insecrutities of growing up, his dreams as a kid, heartbreaks, and family. You can totally relate to this book, with its funny, and yet sad moments. The book shows the changes in time of Jerry Spinelli himself and the town that he grew up in. This is a great book for preteens and actually anybody, you'll laugh you'll cringe- you might cry, Have fun with it!