Customer Reviews

Snap

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I understand that I'm not the target audience for this book, but as a fan and supporter of the work of Alison McGhee, I want to give everything she writes a chance. This is a young adult novel aimed at the late elementary/junior high school age. "Snap", though written for a younger audience, is just as good as McGhee's full length, adult novels.

Edwina Beckey is eleven years old. She makes lists for everything: herself, her friends, things she likes, her school day. This is how she makes the world understandable. She also wears rubber bands on her wrist to remind herself of things she wants to remember (don't tip back on your chair, don't cover your mouth when you laugh), and she snaps them whenever she needs a reminder. She is friends with Sally Hobart. When something changes in Sally's life, it changes how Edwina looks at hers and why she makes lists and snaps her rubber bands.

Having read McGhee's other novels, it came as no surprise to see how powerful this story was and how real the emotions McGhee describes feel. This may be a challenging book for a YA reader because of the issues dealt with in the book, but it is a very well written book with believable characters who react in believable ways to the events of the novel. Like McGhee's other novels, this one is also set near Sterns by the Adirondack Mountains and references are made to characters from her novels.

Snap is incredibly written. McGhee has great insight into what goes through a person's mind when faced with the imminent death of a loved one. But I'm not convinced that a 10-year-old will be as moved by McGhee's writing as a middle-schooler might be.

Eddie and Sally are real kids- inquisitive, emotional, and fragile at times, while being active and content and even silly at others. The characters are a highlight of the book.

The resolution of the story strays from the more predictable options McGhee could have taken, and ends with a nice twist.

I would recommend this book, but not to a casual reader. This is a book for kids (girls, more likely) who are avid readers, and who aren't afraid to grapple with difficult issues.

This is definitely a book to be savored and reread. Each of the characters is memorable in her own right and the interaction between them is depicted with great poignancy. Although this is a novel about death and dying and loss, it is primarily a novel about friendship and relationships. The writing is beautiful and this is a story that will remain very much with you long after you close the book.

The book is about a girl name Edwina Becky that does lists. Like grocery lists, homework lists, New Years resolutions, books read , books to be read, best friends,
next best friends, favorite names, favorite nicknames, favorite movies, favorite foods. Also that she is 11 years old. And Edwina has a friend to that is name Sally Hobart. Well
Edwina does wear colored rubber bands on her wrist. That each all of the rubber bands represents something she did or has already. And that her friend Sally wants to know about her life, friendship, and wants to know about the future also. But Edwina does not know the answers to Sally's questions. Edwina's favorite activity is making a lot of lists of any kind. Also that it's about the friendship of them being friends forever. But mostly it's about the color of rubber bands that have personalities. Like the red one: has is putting food in her cheeks. And the blue one: is thinking of my best friends. Also the yellow one: is for tipping back in chairs. But the white one: is for covering my mouth when I laugh a lot. The pink one: is for whistling under my breath so that it drives other people crazy. But the purple one: stands for "remembering to wear your glasses". The rubber bands all mean something that involves with Edwina's life. Also that Edwina and her friend Sally eat a lot of doughnuts. But they do enjoy having fun being good friends, until one of them could snap one of their rubber bands.

Jazlyn Halberstadt
02/19/07

Snap by Alison McGhee
ISBN- 076362617-1

Red, Blue, Yellow, White, Pink,& Purple.

"I have six of them ( rubber bands ), in all different colors, on my left wrist, to be snapped when necessary." My book Snap is a realistic fiction book. It takes place in present day America..There are three main characters; Eddie who is telling the story, Sally her best friend, & Willie who is Sally's dying Grandma ;Willie is the guardian of Sally. The book is mainly about Eddie trying to help Sally through this very hard time and the inner struggle of keeping the friendship together & strong. All the struggle comes from Sally watching & knowing the one person she really loves is leaving & will never come back.

This book was an amazing story. It had a suburb moral and point. It really put in perspective what friendship means. Another reason it was fantastic is how it kept you hanging at the end of a chapter. I would definitely recommend this book. I would recommend it because of the values you can grasp from it. Also, it teaches what a friend should really do. It displays the friends you want in life and want to be. This book will be enjoyed by girls of ages ten to fifteen. Also, the type of girl who enjoys a touching story or event. It was such a page turner. It left you off with phrases that really made you think to yourself why or what, and you keep reading to get your questions answered. My mind during the novel did not wander at all. It didn't because of how captured I was from the interesting plot and action filled events. I really connected with the main character Eddie because she had a friend who resisted help from her and yet still stayed friends to comfort her. Eddie didn't know how exactly how to help but what helped was staying friends can relate to this because my sister went through a period of time when friends were dying and I didn't know how to comfort her and in the end she said it helped just knowing I was there for her to talk to.

This is a beautifully written, lyrical book that deals with the effects of impending loss on friendship in an emotionally sophisticated way. Highly recommended.

*Snap* goes the rubber band, followed by a grimace of regret. Eddie thinks she needs that reminder to help quit habits such as tipping back in chairs, or squirreling away food in her cheeks. Wearing rubber bands and making LISTS help her move in the right direction, and liven her friendship with Sally.

This summer they avoid discussing Sally's vibrant grandma & her illness. Their friendship seems to call for dancing around the subject but Eddie finally demands that they talk about the possibility of death - and eventually the bond between the girls is strengthened.

Sally and Eddie are beautifully described: girls who are real in a sometimes surreal world, who continue to *be there* for each other when problems loom as large and dark as their neighboring Adirondack mountains. This is the story of a budding childhood friendship that grows into true affection as the girls enter their teens.

*SNAP* is sure to find wide and unexpected? popularity among young girls as well as older ones who remember sharing a secret shack or a meandering stream. It receives four enthusiastic stars from REVIEWER mcHAIKU who asks, "Why can't there be more books in this vein for intelligent, sensitive boys?"

After nearly a dozen years of classroom teaching and countless read-aloud books, this book is among the Top Five. A must read!

This book is about a girl named Edwina she really likes lists she makes them for every thing. She has a best friend. Her best friends grandma is her friend to. Ed ,her nickname, and her friend really like sprinkled doughnuts. She has 5 braclets that she wears onher wrist and they mean different things. Like one means dont tip back in your chair but if she does she has to snap it.

I think this book was well written. The main character is a girl who is realistic and believable. She deals with realistic issues that I can understand and relate to. The problem with this book is that it's too short. If only it had been 80 pages longer, and I probably would have given it five stars. I like how this book describes relationships between different people and how these relationships change over time, due to the fact that people grow older. Personally, I like books like this, that discuss topics such as relationships and death. However, I think that this book only skimmed the surface of these topics. If it was 80 pages longer, it could have gone more into these concepts and been a more satisfying book.