Skip to main content

Bigger than a Breadbox

By


Bigger than a Breadbox
by Laurel Snyder
Random House, 2011. 223 pgs. Juvenile Fiction.

When Rebecca's mother gets fed up with her dad and hustles Rebecca and her brother off to Atlanta to live with their grandmother, Rebecca is angry. She loves her father. Her mother's need to be away from their home in Baltimore seems selfish and foolish. But as Rebecca explores Gran's house she finds an old breadbox which gives her whatever she wishes for--that can fit inside a breadbox. Money, an iPod, a cellphone, a jacket just like the one the most popular girl at school wears appear when she asks, but when Rebecca figures out from whence the magic breadbox summons all these items, things take a sharp turn for the worse. Despite its magical elements, Bigger than a Breadbox is not really a fantasy novel. It is about parents and children making mistakes. Of really fouling things up, but continuing to try and gaining the wisdom and perspective that comes from both good and bad experience. This would be a fine book to give to an older-elementary or younger teen (especially a girl) struggling with family difficulties.
Labels:

Comments

curlyq said…
I thought this book was so well-written, especially in that the family relationships, emotions, and situation really felt REAL. I was impressed with the way this book got me personally invested in the story. Well done and a great book about a strained parent/family relationship.
March 31, 2012 at 10:09 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Factory

By
The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Fowl Play

By
  Fowl Play By Kristin O'Donnell Tubb New York: Katherine Tegen Books, 2024. Fiction 277 pages. Still reeling from her beloved uncle's death, Chloe Alvarez is comforted and confused when at his last will and testament reading, Uncle Will gifts her his African Grey parrot, Charlie. Charlie has a robust vocabulary and loves to make Alexa requests for her favorite songs, but when she starts saying things like, "homicide," and "cyanide," Chloe becomes convinced that Uncle Will may have met his demise by murder instead of a genetic disease, as was previously thought. Ultimately, bringing in her brother, Grammy, and Uncle Frank (and of course Charlie,) Chloe's ragtag and adoring family support her search for answers ---going on stakeouts, engaging in fast pursuits, and searching for clues. But as the suspects stack up and the mystery grows, Chole will learn that the process of death and grieving is complicated, and in the end her Uncle Will's words that, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry

By DeeDee
National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry Edited by J. Patrick Lewis National Geographic, 2012, 183 p. Poetry In this beautiful poetry collection, the National Children's Poet Laureate, J. Patrick Lewis, has teamed up with the amazing photographers at National Geographic. The result is 200 poems about animals, all illustrated with stunning nature photography.  The poems are well chosen and include rhyming, free verse, and shape poetry. Some of the poems are funny, many are contemplative and all are nicely typeset on top of the full color photographs. One of my favorites is a shape poem about flamingos, with a photograph of a flock of flamingos which seem to be standing the the shape of a flamingo (how did they do that?).  Lewis ends the collection with a brief but interesting section about writing animal poetry.  This selection is sure to turn any animal lover into a poetry lover.
Post a Comment
Read more