Customer Reviews

Plastic Back

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

 

 

Received book to all the way to New Zealand in under a week so great delivery!
Book was great! As a girl who's got scoliosis, it captured the scoli-essence well and was written very goodly:)

I read this book very recently, and absolutely loved it! :) I wore a Milwaukee brace 23/7 from 4th grade through 7th grade, and now I have a Providence bending brace. Even though I never wore (yet) a Boston Brace, I could totally relate to this book! She wrote this book with such accuracy that only a true scoli kid could write with, and this book is so great for us (meaning scoli kids) to have our friends read. I'm extremely appreciative to finally have a book about scoliosis that isn't just informative, and actually comes from a former brace wearer! Thanks for writing it... and to those who haven't read it- you should!

This is a wonderful book - engaging, humorous, inspiring, and dramatically realistic. I'm now 34, but I wore a brace for two years as a teenager and vividly recall confronting many of the same challenging emotions that the character of Anna Beth experiences in the book. While the narrative revolves around scoliosis issues, this is really a book about overcoming formidable obstacles at a young age. As such, it should be appealing to all young readers, regardless of whether they have scoliosis. And, while the book addresses some issues that are perhaps more pertinent to girls, I agree with another reviewer that most boys will enjoy it, too.

Middle school is a time for awkward interactions, first crushes, fashion disasters, and most importantly; it is a time to discover who you really are. In this new coming of age story, Anna Beth is challenged with something much bigger than first kisses and gym class uniforms when she discovers that she has severe scoliosis. Everything she had planned with winning the basketball tournament and experiencing the perfect school dance all changes with her S-shaped spinal curve. Anna Beth is fearful that her new plastic back brace, the painful remedy to straighten her back, will prevent her determination to just be normal. Instead, it is her "plastic back" that helps her gain the strength to overcome peer pressure, discover a passion for music, and realize who the real Anna Beth is. This realistic fiction novel, inspired by the author's personal battle with scoliosis, is a motivating story of strife, struggle and triumph. The importance of family and true friendship is a consistent theme throughout the story demonstrated through Anna Beth's relationships with her mother, brother and best friend Kristen. Written in first person, this story uses powerful language and imagery intertwined with humorous dialogue. Young teens will easily relate to the awkward episodes of first dances, accidents in gym class, and the feeling of being different. This book is suggested for ages 12 and above and although this story revolves around female centered issues, boys too will enjoy the rich dialogue and humorous social interactions throughout the book.

This book wasn't awful, but it certainly wasn't for me. I thought it had quite a strong beginning, and I could relate to Anna Beth's experiences, having scoliosis myself, but the book was about 80% what I would call "7th grade fluff"- school dances, crushes, etc. it was a bit interesting to hear how she went through all that with a back brace, but in some parts it went over the top. Also, I found Anna Beth's character to be stereotypical, and boring. She spent way too much time ogling over crushes and thinking about basketball (not to mention she had the nerve to tell every single doctor about her amazing assists). Plus, I thought the part where she starts playing the piano too be a bit sudden. It was literally like " blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.... and then one day I went and got a PIANO!" I mean, come on. We had absolutely no indication that she was musical, and yet the majority of the 2nd half of the book is about her experiences taking piano lessons, with barely any mention of the back brace.
One last thing- I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad thing, but this book is short. Like 80 pages. It took about 45 minutes to read, and left me hungry for more. the author set up this great premise, but just decided to end the book shortly after Anna Beth's first piano recital. If you want to read a short heartwarming story about a girl's experience with a back brace in middle school over the course of what seemed like barely a month, and don't mind lots of drooling over cute boys, go ahead. But if you want something more in depth, (minus the middle school drama) don't bother. Again, not bad, but definitely not for me.