Customer Reviews

My One Hundred Adventures

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

 

 

I have been a librarian for many, many years, and I can assure you that not one of my students would like this book! It is the kind of book that cerebral intellectuals would have you believe is "wonderful." Yes, there are a few interesting descriptions, and Jane's voice does have some honesty, but the situations she runs into seem very contrived, and her voice is more like an adult recalling a childhood summer than a child's thoughts in "real time." The "quirky" characters are shallow, self-absorbed, and often mean-spirited. Jane lapses into bouts of poetic reverie in between wondering if the next male vagrant she sees is her daddy or the father of one of her siblings.(Jane is not sure whether her sister and two brothers have the same father or different ones.)Jane cannot help her mother with her younger siblings, because Jane is black-mailed into babysitting a hoard of greasy children, while the children's mother takes on a waitressing job. Jane has to take them to the beach and wander through the neighborhood, because it is summertime and the children's father, the school's janitor, is drunk and violent back at their trailer home. Jane's mother, a poet who once won a Pulitzer (right!), never asks where Jane is all day, and no one apparently gets sunburned. Their female pastor ropes Jane into helping hand out free Bibles on Sundays, but the pastor is too wrapped up in herself and drags Jane to a roadside fortune teller, and later a "channeler," trying to validate whether she has the power to heal and is destined for "great" things. All of this is told with somber sincerity, as Jane ponders LIFE. This book is like a movie that doesn't know whether it is a comedy or a drama, and the elements jar with one another. A few adults may think this is high art, but for kids, it will be a snoozer-rama!

What a lovely book. I became a Polly Horvath fan years ago with The Trolls and Everything on a Waffle. This new book has a similar Horvathian episodic style, exquisite prose, and her unique dry understated wit. Set in a Massachusetts coastal town, 12 year-old Jane lives with her poet mother and younger siblings on the beach. In true Horvath fashion, eccentric characters populate the novel as do eccentric experiences -- delivering Bibles by balloon, babysitting issues, and other intimate adventures. There are a number of connecting threads (family, fathers, friendship, and more) moving through the story, all nicely and satisfyingly resolved for our heroine Jane by the end.

Horvath always has a dry, deadpan humorous style that I've always loved. For example, in this book, Jane's poet-mother is evidently doing what she can to find and put food on the table and there is mention of a large bag of rice. Toward the end of the book Jane, her mother, and a friend are mourning the death of another character:

We don't feel much like having a barbecue now. We sit around and eat a little rice.

(And again a few paragraphs later when someone stops by to discuss the funeral.)

"Of course we will be there. We will all be there," says my mother and then offers Mrs. Merriweather a little rice, but she cannot stay. She has other arrangements to make.

A book that lingers long after you are done with it. Completely charming.

My One Hundred Adventures is a cross between Jim Lynch's The Highest Tide and Joan Bauer's Hope Was Here. Surprises await in every chapter, making the reader want to quickly turn to the next page. By the same token, Horvath is so in-tune with her 12-year-old protagonist and the daily music of her summer days in a small Massachusetts beach town, that I found I also wanted to stop and read passages over and over again.

Jane is ready for adventure. She has spent all her years with her three younger siblings and her single mom in a wonderfully cozy house by the sea, but she is aching for something more. She's ready to leap into the "know-not-what" this summer. And leap she does with a first time solo ride in a hot-air balloon, a trip to the fair with her possible father, an almost road trip to California with an elderly neighbor, and a new friendship with Nellie, preacher and hopeful healer. Just by summoning a little positive energy and opening her front door, Jane's dreams for 100 adventures begin to come true.

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Clever, lovely, and insightfully sharp, 12-year-old Jane is on a mission for one hundred adventures, and she is ready for them.

Her home is a permanent beach house that has doors that are always wide open, no matter the time of day or night or weather, and is delightful and homey. Jane loves her home and her family - her hopeless romantic mother and her three brothers and sisters.

But then a slew of possible fathers comes roaming around the beach, there's the coincidence of a dropped Bible on a baby's head, a gullible mother, and the question that maybe Nellie Phipps isn't really in the right mind as pastor and a responsible adult.

I loved this book. It is a slow paced one, but the tempo of this novel makes you savor it, and paints a detailed picture of one incredibly sharp girl.

MY ONE HUNDRED ADVENTURES is a charming read, and is very touching and endearing. Readers will identify with Jane, who longs for adventure and freedom, and her free-willed spirit and kind nature. Polly Horvath's style brings out the characters, such as the adults, painfully real, but somehow there is always this wishful feeling in her style, and I always felt as if there was maybe, just maybe, a touch of magic in her words.

I recommend this book for people who like simple stories about life and growing out of your innocence and into becoming a more responsible person. I know that people who love detail will enjoy this book, and it is wonderfully written, as well. But watch out - this tale is a little tricky, and there may be a few big words out there.

Reviewed by: Bailey - The Class

I thought this was meant to be a children's book, though I think it might be a bit too mature to be one. The subject matter is quite serious at times (including the unknown paternity of 4 siblings and their single mother who seems to be in love with all of them), though the "adventures" are mostly amusing.

I quite enjoyed it though. It was very entertaining.... a fun read.

Age Recommendation: 12 and up

My 100 Adventures is the best book I have ever read. I am 9 years old. It is very enjoyable. I think it is very funny. It is a great book for all ages.
Polly Horvath's other books are excellent. I would absolutely give it 5 stars. I think everybody should read it. I am sure that if you read it you will love it. After reading it, Polly Horvath is my favorite author.

Polly Horvath's book My One Hundred Adventures is about a girl looking for adventures during her summer vacation. She lives in a town with quirky people. The village preacher hijacks her weekly to deliver bibles. But they drop them out of a stolen hot air balloon. The summer is filled with adventures, strange people and strange happenings surround a story that is all about family. A family that is broken and putting the pieces back together. I highly recommend this book to children both boys and girls fourth grade and up looking for a good example of realistic fiction. d

I purchased "My One Hundred Advemtures" for my granddaughter, but I always read the books before sending them. I was happy with the condition of the book, the story, and also the prompt delivery. I am sure she will enjoy this book as much as I did.

My 100 Adventures is the best book I have ever read. I am 9 years old. It is very enjoyable. I think it is very funny. It is a great book for all ages.
Polly Horvath's other books are excellent. I would absolutely give it 5 stars. I think everybody should read it. I am sure that if you read it you will love it. After reading it, Polly Horvath is my favorite author.