book reviews for winged people (
booksofafeather) wrote2011-03-18 09:31 pm
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The Things With Wings
Short review: A boy who hates change and a girl with a dream of flight work to uncover the secret of their town. An adventure story for children that can get quite silly, but is very thoughtful about people with wings.... it has some great twists on the usual way these stories go. Recommended for winged people, if you can put up with all the silly jokes, and the fact that it is a typical sort of story.
Writing: The writing is quite average... and the jokes are terrible! The story is also not very surprising. There is some good philosophy throughout the book though.
From a winged person's perspective...: On this scale, the book scores almost perfectly! The girl who longs to fly is consistent about her feelings and doesn't regret her changes at all. Everyone thinks she is a bad influence with too much imagination, but she doesn't care how people see her and keeps her dreams to the very end... her feelings are described well too, and many winged people and people who dream of flight will see themselves in her... from the way that she keeps her room to her nervous excitement of someone who holds a secret very close and precious, when it comes to telling someone about her dreams. A number of other characters who experience that longing are shown too. The book avoids some human-centric thinking that it could have fallen into. The people who shy away from dreams of flight because they don't want their children to be "weird" are not supported. There's a lot of education about butterflies also. The only problem is shown in the strange way that the main girl character reacts to some later events.
Trigger warnings: A mention of rips in wings, though it is not detailed. Wings falling off.
More thoughts...: It's a shame that a lot of the way this book is written feels so silly, because under it all there is a good story and a good philosophy about change and adventure. I love the main female character, who wants to "repeal the law of gravity" (in a way that will make you flash back to Julie Gonzalez' Wings... or if it doesn't, you need to read that book!) and is very principled about never hurting a butterfly... who loves children's books even though people think she is too old for them... and even has a collection of books that seems like it is trying to be a "reading list" for people who dream of flight! It even taught me the names of some books to look for that I didn't find even with all the searching I have done! She even doesn't mind when she realises that having wings, she is a "thing"... not a human... and is quite happy to be this way, no matter what. I could tell you more, but it would end up spoiling the surprises.
Other than the bad jokes (at least one in every chapter it feels like, and often they're the names of chapters, so it spoils the joke, which starts to feel a bit silly), there are some other things that keep this book from having a perfect score. Late in the book, two things happen that you would think the main girl character would react to strongly, but she doesn't react at all. For someone who was written as she was, it seems like it was looked over that she never seems sad or affected.
Thankfully, at least, the ending is not depressing. I was worried about this book because it seemed like it was going so well with its wonderful description of a girl who loved flying so much... I was scared that in the end all the magic would be gone and it would just be another one of those books where people accept their normal lives after a great adventure. I was about ready to throw the book if that happened (not really, don't throw library books!) because it was showing such hope and I was just nervous that it was all going to be destroyed in the end... how sad is that... that that story is so typical, I have to be worried about it. It narrowly escaped that happening though.
Overall, I have to give this four out of five. Truly, for anyone who doesn't dream of flight, this book would not be so great, at least for an adult, although I think younger children will enjoy it. Otherwise, it's only for those who love the subject. But this is where my reviews are coming from... so that's my score. If you want a story of the "person gets magical wings" type that doesn't have the usual fear of change, this is a good one, although Wings by Julie Gonzalez and Bird by Rita Murphy are still better.
Writing: The writing is quite average... and the jokes are terrible! The story is also not very surprising. There is some good philosophy throughout the book though.
From a winged person's perspective...: On this scale, the book scores almost perfectly! The girl who longs to fly is consistent about her feelings and doesn't regret her changes at all. Everyone thinks she is a bad influence with too much imagination, but she doesn't care how people see her and keeps her dreams to the very end... her feelings are described well too, and many winged people and people who dream of flight will see themselves in her... from the way that she keeps her room to her nervous excitement of someone who holds a secret very close and precious, when it comes to telling someone about her dreams. A number of other characters who experience that longing are shown too. The book avoids some human-centric thinking that it could have fallen into. The people who shy away from dreams of flight because they don't want their children to be "weird" are not supported. There's a lot of education about butterflies also. The only problem is shown in the strange way that the main girl character reacts to some later events.
Trigger warnings: A mention of rips in wings, though it is not detailed. Wings falling off.
More thoughts...: It's a shame that a lot of the way this book is written feels so silly, because under it all there is a good story and a good philosophy about change and adventure. I love the main female character, who wants to "repeal the law of gravity" (in a way that will make you flash back to Julie Gonzalez' Wings... or if it doesn't, you need to read that book!) and is very principled about never hurting a butterfly... who loves children's books even though people think she is too old for them... and even has a collection of books that seems like it is trying to be a "reading list" for people who dream of flight! It even taught me the names of some books to look for that I didn't find even with all the searching I have done! She even doesn't mind when she realises that having wings, she is a "thing"... not a human... and is quite happy to be this way, no matter what. I could tell you more, but it would end up spoiling the surprises.
Other than the bad jokes (at least one in every chapter it feels like, and often they're the names of chapters, so it spoils the joke, which starts to feel a bit silly), there are some other things that keep this book from having a perfect score. Late in the book, two things happen that you would think the main girl character would react to strongly, but she doesn't react at all. For someone who was written as she was, it seems like it was looked over that she never seems sad or affected.
Thankfully, at least, the ending is not depressing. I was worried about this book because it seemed like it was going so well with its wonderful description of a girl who loved flying so much... I was scared that in the end all the magic would be gone and it would just be another one of those books where people accept their normal lives after a great adventure. I was about ready to throw the book if that happened (not really, don't throw library books!) because it was showing such hope and I was just nervous that it was all going to be destroyed in the end... how sad is that... that that story is so typical, I have to be worried about it. It narrowly escaped that happening though.
Overall, I have to give this four out of five. Truly, for anyone who doesn't dream of flight, this book would not be so great, at least for an adult, although I think younger children will enjoy it. Otherwise, it's only for those who love the subject. But this is where my reviews are coming from... so that's my score. If you want a story of the "person gets magical wings" type that doesn't have the usual fear of change, this is a good one, although Wings by Julie Gonzalez and Bird by Rita Murphy are still better.