Rating: 
Summary: A quirky little tale
Review: Shadow Baby is an enjoyable little read about a precocious girl desperate for information about her paternity. Problem is her Mom's not telling, so Clara is left to imagine the various scenarios about who her father may be and how she came into the world. Clara meets up with Georg, an elderly immigrant man and the two form an odd but touching friendship. Shadow Baby touches on the need we all have to know our personal history, good, bad or otherwise. Clara is a charming, witty, albeit odd little girl who is not easily forgotten.
Rating: 
Summary: A masterful achievement
Review: Shadow Baby is one of the best books I've read. It is a compelling and tender coming-of-age book that is spiced with wit. As I turned the pages, I couldn't help but think that Shadow Baby should be required reading for every teenager struggling for a sense of identity. The themes in this book are profound and the writing is luminous. McGhee is a gifted writer.
Rating:
Summary: I Didn't Want It to End
Review: Shadow Baby is one of the best books I've read. It is a compelling and tender coming-of-age book that is spiced with wit. As I turned the pages, I couldn't help but think that Shadow Baby should be required reading for every teenager struggling for a sense of identity. The themes in this book are profound and the writing is luminous. McGhee is a gifted writer.
Rating:
Summary: An engaging short novel
Review: This book centers around Clara, a precocious 11 year old, and her friendship with Georg, an immigrant seven times her age. Clara is an odd child who is obsessed with words--she loves some words for the arrangement of their consonants, like martyr, and hates other words, like winter. Winter also happens to be Clara's last name, but in her own mind, she always spells it with a lowercase "w," as she sees winter as dangerous and blames it for the death of her twin sister at birth. Clara feels lost without her twin, and she can't get any answers from her mother about who her father is, what really happened on the night of her birth, and why she's never met her grandfather. She asks questions of George too--initially, she sets out to interview him as part of a class project--and when his own answers are elusive, Clara makes up stories to fill in the blanks. This is an engaging tale of a girl trying to make sense of her world through questions, words, and stories.
Rating:
Summary: a must read
Review: This book had me from the start. The author's use of words is a gift to the reader. I am reading it for the second time just for the enjoyment of the words. I want to be Clara. I want to have all those wonderful words inside me, waiting to get out. I am looking forward to reading the author's other books. Excellent writing. Thank you Ms McGhee.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully told
Review: This is one of the most lovely and bittersweet books I've ever read. The main character, Clara, is heartbreakingly wise and determined beyond her years. The relationship between her mother and her rings true and real and the friendship she develops with the old man is simply priceless. How this author knew how to speak in the language of a twelve-year-old is amazing to me.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning!
Review: What a wonderful, wonderful book! Clara winter (you'll see why she spells her last name without a capital when you read the book) is an 11-year-old girl you'll never forget. She is precocious in her wordminded-ness, yet naive and childlike in her propensity for fantasy. In Shadow Baby, Clara goes on a search for her own history--her dead twin sister, her MIA grandfather, her phantom father. This book is stunningly written, both hilariously funny and achingly sad. Truly a literary feat. Love it love it love it.
Rating:
Summary: beautiful--strangeness allowed to be strange!
Review: With the logic of Christopher from Mark Haddon's _Incident of the Dog in the Night-time_, Clara winter narrates her yearning for her grandfather and sister in a stark way that makes me sympathize with her more readily than I might had she used the cute attitude that weakens other child characters and sickens my stomach. She knows her situation and doesn't spare any punches when it comes to describing loneliness.This isn't to say she doesn't have her superstitions; she wears bungee cords in winter (which is never capitalized, for a reason she makes clear throughout the book) and dreams up imaginary lives for her absent family and Georg, the immigrant she befriends during a school project (who also plays a pivotal and touching role). But though her equipment and wordplay may at first seem trivial, they become a profound commentary on language, accepting relationships, and perception as, through a somewhat formulaic but honest and heartbreaking ending, she learns that the implications of her words apply to her own growth as well. Clara is openly referred to as precocious and strange several times throughout the book, and I really like that. The author left her alone--she does sound similar to Chris, an autistic boy, but she is never labeled with any disorder. Too many times, I think, authors feel they have to tidy up characters' eccentricities by explaining them away as academically gifted or disabled. While it is good to gain insights about mental disorders etc., it takes courage to portray an atypical character whose eccentricities are bold, beautiful, and part of her, requiring no apology or diagnosis.
Rating:
Summary: You'll love this book!
Review: You will become this little girl while you are reading this book, and your heart will ache for her. The characters are a bit odd, but extrememly endearing, a combination I find irresistable. I laughed out loud at times, so that others in the room would say "what?" and I'd have to read the passage aloud. And of course I hit the kleenex box a few times too. You won't want to miss this one!
|
