Customer Reviews

Toning The Sweep

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Toning the Sweep is about Emily, a rebellious young adult who lives with her family in Ohio. However, the story is set in the desert where Emily's Grandma, Ola, lives. Unlike her mother, Emily loves the desert and is devoted to Ola and their annual trip to the desert is the highlight of her year. When Ola becomes ill with cancer, in their concern for Ola's health, Emily's family decides to have Ola come and live with them in Ohio. In her last summer in the desert,Emily makes a videotape of the desert for Ola and in the process finds out about her family history and the tradgic death of her Grandfather. I enjoyed this book because I think that it is well-writen and I admired the way that Ola is dying with grace in the story.

Angela Johnson's novel, Toning the Sweep, is a story about a family coming together after being apart for so long. Emily is a fourteen-year-old girl, who has just found out her grandmother, Ola, is dying of cancer. Emily gets a video camera and starts taping Ola and everyone around her. She discovers the real story of her grandfather's death, the reason mama is still upset about it, and how Ola is saying goodbye to the desert before she dies. This book gives a look into a family that makes sacrifices for each other and are there for each other. I gave this book four stars because it shows the real hearts of the people. If you read this book and do not see the real heart and soul of young, spirited Emily and her loving family, then you did not really read this book. * * * *

In my opinion Toning the Sweep was a good book. I think that Angela Johnson did a good job on this book the only thing that I really didn't like was how Ola's Husband died. The main Character's in the book is a young girl named Emily, and her mother Diane. The supporting Character would be Ola who is her grandmother. Throughout the book you can tell that Diane is jealous of the relationship that Emily and Ola have because she didn't and never had a chance to have a special bond with Ola. Emily's Grandfather dies in the beginning of the book but they don't tell you why until about the middle to the end of the book, after the funeral Emily and her mother move to California. In the first couple of chapters Emily and Diane Find out hat Ola has cancer then Emily and her mother then move to Cleveland to take care of her grandmother. Then at the end of the book Emily and Diane move to Ohio so they can spend the remaining time with Ola before she passes away.
I personally liked this book and I would recommend this book to someone that really gets along with his or her family and that liked to read family value books.

I thought that this book had a lot of meaning to people who know's how it feels to lose someone your close to. I thought that this book was very interesting, it was a book that made me understand what people do for there families, and what lengths they would go to. This book would be good for people of all ages. Toning of Sweep is a good book you get into it on the first chapter. It goes through a girls life and what she deals with in her family matters, living so far away from her grandmother and who'd she'd do anything for. You read all that this girl goes through and see her grow up. You find out her feelings and how she deals with death, and how she feels about her family. It's a really good book, it's a book that you get into and will love. You feel like you know the characters and know the family, and friends. If i had a chance to read this book again, i'd definitly take the chance.

Toning the Sweep in my opinion is very boring. It has no climax to keep you on the edge of your seat. Some of the chapters don't make sense, nad they don't flow into each other smoothly. The Characters were structured pretty well, but it was hard to understand them till the last few chapters. I couldn't understand the way they were feeling, and sometimes I couldn't understand why they were feeling that way. The book also has no dramatic points in it, the plot was very weak. Some positive things about the book are that it is an easy book to read. The grammer usage is appropriate for the book. Sometimes you have to reread parts of the book to understand it. Over all the book is an easy read and I recommend it for older people who have probably lived through the civil rights movement.

Toning The Sweep is a great book by Angela Johnson. The main character of this book is a girl names Emily. Her mother's name is Diane, and her grandmother's name is Ola. Ola and Emily are very close. Throughout this entire book, you can tell that the mother is somewhat jealous of the relationship that Emily and Ola share. She wishes that her and her mother were like that. After the funeral of Emily's grandfather, her and her mother move to Little Rock, California. Towards the beginning of the book, Emily and her mother find out that Ola has cancer. They then move to Cleveland so that Emily and Diane can take care of Ola. Throughout the book, Emily decides to videotape Ola and her friends. There are a lot of happy moments in the videotape, as well as moments where she filmed her grandmother sitting under a Joshua tree. Later in the book Emily finds out what really happened to her grandfather. The name of this book means to hit a plow and make a really loud noise to show that someone has just died. In chapter 19,Emily and Diane finally "tone the sweep" of their grandfather.At the end of the book, Emily, Diane, and Ola move back to Ohio so that they can spend the remaining time with Ola before she dies. This book has taught me that faimilies should always stick together no matter what. I'm glad that I have a family like that. I would recomend this book to everybody.

The novel Toning the Sweep by Angela Johnson is a story about Emily a fourteen-year-old girl (the main character) and her mama are moving to Little Rock after Emily's grandfather's funeral. Where Ola lives Emily's Grandmother . Emily finds out that her Grandmother is dying from cancer. Throughout the whole book Emily is videotaping Ola and her friends for memories. Later Emily finds out what really happened to her grandfather and why her mama is so mad. Ola, Emily and mama are moving to Cleveland so mama and Emily can take care of Ola. Toning the sweep the name of the book comes from a chapter in this book when mama and Emily tone the sweep of Emily's Grandfather. To tone a sweep means to hit a plow so it makes a loud noise to make sure everyone knows that someone is dead. This book shows that what ever goes wrong families should always stick together. This book was good book that was quick and easy.

I, too, was introduced to this book because it was a requirement for a college level children's literature class. I am a middle-aged person going through the career change of becoming an elementary teacher. I thought the book was wonderful. The character "Ola" was thoroughly delightful. The imagery throughout the book is very strong. This was a powerful novel about all types of relationships, family and friends, and their intermingling. At first I was annoyed at not knowing what had happened to the mother, but was later impressed with the way the author brought everything together. This book made me laugh and cry. I would recommend it to everyone.

Toning the Sweep is a great book by Angela Johnson. The main characters of this book are a girl named Emily, her mother whose name is Diane, and her grandmother, whose name is Ola. Ola and Emily are very close. Throughtout the novel, you can tell that Emily's mother is jealous of the relationship that Emily and Ola share. Towards the beginning of the book Emily and her mother find out that Ola has cancer. There are alot of happy moments in the book such as when Emily viedotapes her grandmother under the Joshua tree. In the book you can see how much Emily cares for her grandmother. The book is based on relationships between mothers and daughters.

In this story a young girl named emily learns about her family. At the beginning of the book emily is on her way to help her Grandmother Ola move from the coastal desert of California to her mother's house in Alb. because her grandfather passed away. The read learns that there is some bad blood between Ola and emily's mom. Later in the blook the read will learn that Ola has cancer and that's one reason why Ola is moving in with Emily's family. Near the end of the book Ola and Emily's mom settle the bad blood between them.

I liked the this book, because it showed me how the bond between mother and daughter is. It also showed me that Parents have such a major role in their childerns lives.