Immagine dell'autore.

Sherri L. Smith

Autore di Flygirl

30+ opere 2,451 membri 101 recensioni

Sull'Autore

Sherri L. Smith was born in Chicago, Illinois. Her first book, Lucy the Giant, was an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults in 2003. Her other books include Sparrow, Orleans, The Toymaker's Apprentice, and Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet. Flygirl won the California Book Award Gold Medal. mostra altro (Bowker Author Biography) mostra meno

Comprende il nome: Sherri L. Smith

Fonte dell'immagine: Photo: K. Mao By Sherri L. Smith - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65754307

Serie

Opere di Sherri L. Smith

Opere correlate

Wonder Woman Black & Gold (2021) — Collaboratore — 11 copie

Etichette

Informazioni generali

Data di nascita
1971
Sesso
female
Nazionalità
USA
Luogo di nascita
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Luogo di residenza
Los Angeles, California, USA

Utenti

Recensioni

In the end, this historical young adult novel moved me.

Granted, despite the publisher's description, I wouldn't call the book a romance. Taro and Hana don't meet each other until about halfway through the novel, and even from there, they don't have the most interaction.

While I liked the nonchronological unfolding of the story, much of the book ambles along through the separate lives of two young people, unknown to each other, who'll cross paths...eventually. I appreciate the story's sense of setting and culture, but perhaps some scenes could have been edited down or omitted to keep the plot moving forward. I think it stalls the progress in a fiction read when, for instance, the narrative spends multiple paragraphs describing how a certain lunch is prepared. The reading was on the slow side for me until some point during the second half.

Still, the novel has moments of aching exquisiteness. Moments of ethereal brilliance, even when they're bittersweet. Those moments were enough to keep me reading until the story truly came alive for me.

Besides, having enjoyed historical fiction from this author before—and after seeing the poignant blend of war, understated emotion, and quiet beauty displayed on the book cover—I wouldn't have been able to resist seeing just how the title and the plot would come together.
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
NadineC.Keels | 5 altre recensioni | Mar 10, 2024 |
I don't know what I find harder to belive, that Avatar exists and keeps trucking or that I was so blown away by the incredible visual effects to think it was a work of genuis lmfao.

I had no idea what I expected, but I realise if couldn't have been anything else. If l you love Avatar, this is Avatar why everything turned up or down to eleven. You can literally guess the story, though I don't think anyone was expect Na'vi in spaaaaace.

Genuinely, beyond the art, which vacillates between actually gorgeous, through pretty good, to meh, sometimes with consecutive panels side by side, it reads like something from another time, long before the release of the original movie. The noble savage trope is in full effect and the politics and anthropology is as surface level as it comes.… (altro)
 
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RatGrrrl | 1 altra recensione | Dec 29, 2023 |
I love this book and enjoyed Ms Smith's writing style. This is a young adult, historical fiction novel set in the final months of World War II. Although the premise is based on a real-life group of schoolgirls caring for and sending off tokkō pilots, it is about the spaces between sacrifice and duty, grief and hope.

The only thing I knew about tokkō (also known as Kamikaze) pilots is that they deliberately crashed specially made planes directly into enemy warships, which resulted in suicide. It was a desperate policy, obviously.

This book tells us about the lives and feelings of these tokkō pilots, as well as the school girls who cared for them. Ms Smith did her research well. I couldn't put the book down. I felt that I was learning about this particular history in a memorable, personal way.

It's a story about how someone could believe in giving their life for a cause and remain so human.
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nadia.masood | 5 altre recensioni | Dec 10, 2023 |
First off, I've got to say I'm not sure why this historical fiction novel is in the children's and young adult categories, as it isn't a novel about adolescents/teenagers. Ida Mae and her peers are young but grown women.

Now, I was certainly intrigued by the book blurb, which I actually read beforehand. (Something I often don't do.) While the novel has relevant details about the WASP and WWII—and it illustrates how, in general, the war was as much of a major part of Black Americans' lives as any other Americans—the story is a "What if...?" type when it comes to the issue of Ida Mae passing to join the WASP. The author mentions afterward that there's no evidence that any Black women were in the WASP program, through passing or otherwise.

Nevertheless, the story does a pretty good job of pointing out several racial complexities and complications that would crop up in real life. (Heads-up that a couple of minor characters use the N-word.) Although I can't say the emotional and character development were that strong for me, rather serious points of conflict do arise for Ida, particularly after a certain point in the book.

However, the story comes to an abrupt, open-ended conclusion, resolving none of those points. There's a little in the epilogue for readers to guess about and to imagine Ida Mae's future however they wish. While I get that open-ended endings are an actual thing in certain novels, they aren't my thing, personally. Whether it's a happy ending, a sad ending, or a mix of both, I prefer closure at a novel's closing. Especially if the book has no sequel.

I'm not sorry I gave this novel a go, though. And for readers who'd be interested in historical fiction presenting how Black American women actually did serve during WWII, I'd recommend checking out the novel Sisters in Arms by Kaia Alderson.
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
NadineC.Keels | 45 altre recensioni | Nov 29, 2023 |

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Statistiche

Opere
30
Opere correlate
1
Utenti
2,451
Popolarità
#10,464
Voto
3.8
Recensioni
101
ISBN
115
Lingue
4

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