Customer Reviews

Midnight Blue

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

 

 

this is one of the most beautiful books i have ever read. i stumbled opon it in the english youth section of the library in my city. (i'm an american living in the netherlands) and when i read it i was completely overwhelmed. it is a very dreamy and unique book- i have never read anything like it. i couldn't put it down- and all day while i was supposed to be busy, all i could think about was getting home so i could read it. i would highly reccomend it to anyone who loves dreamy stories and i'd read it again a thousand times if i had the chance. :)

Once i picked this book up i could not stop reading it. I felt like Bonnie the main character in this book. Whatever was happening i felt it to. Bonnie didn't know how good she had it until she left. This mirror life she entered showed her a family very much so like she wanted. She loved staying with them she never wanted to go back to her old life. But Bonnie gets stuck and she has to do something.The reason why she is there is for her to return. She also learned that you can run away from hate and that if everyone tries they can to. i dont want to ruin the story for you. So buy this book and travel into this mysterious world with Bonnie.

Bonnie's lived with her grandmother (Grandbag) most of her life. She's now living in an apartment with her mother (Maybelle). She wants to be happy with Maybelle, but knows that Grandbag will do everything in her power to sabotage that happiness. Grandbag is a bitter and controlling woman who must 'own' everything (people and things) that she sees.

When Bonnie (accompanied by the shadow boy) takes off in a midnight blue hot-air balloon she travels to a world 'beyond the sky' where she finds a land just like her own, but with some interesting differences. She is 'adopted' by a family (no questions asked) that is the family she's always yearned for. Her double (Arabella) and the mother (Maybelle) is complete with a dad and baby sister.

But the good is accompanied by the bad. Grandbag appears as Grandmother Marvel and she wants to possess Bonnie's parallel family. In order to save Arabella, Bonnie must find the courage to leave what she's always wanted and return home.

Will Bonnie find peace, happiness and family? Will her courage save Arabella and her family? Will Grandbag get her comeuppance? Is there a connection between Bonnie's world and Arabella's world?

Midnight Blue is a delightful tale of a young girl's quest for family and happiness. The fantasy element of an imperfect parallel world heightens the excitement and helps draw in the reader. And it offers up a delicious but subtle message of hope.

Armchair Interviews says: After reading Midnight Blue, readers will want to check out Pauline Fisk's other titles.

I am aware this book won an award, but I personally did not like it. I am not sure if I will use it in my classroom.

Wonderful book, a dreamy adventure about Bonnie, who seeks to run away from her troubled life, where she is caught between her nervous yet fun mother and her overly controlling grandmother.

When her new happiness is threatned by the reappearance of her grandmother, Bonnie escapes via a dark blue hot air balloon to the land beyond the sky where she encounters the family she has always wanted. Yet, her happiness is again threatened by the bitterness from her fast and she must make a choice about staying, and threatening those she has come to love, or leave and face up to her responsibilties.

A dreamlike, ethereal book that I highly recommend.