Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful Book!
Review: Sharon Creech is my all time favorite author so I was really disapointed with her last book, Chasing Redbird, but she has made up for that disapointment with Bloomability! After reading the book it made we want to go to Switzerland and to the school where the story takes place. Creech does a graet job developing characters and setting. I highly recomend this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Creech does it again!
Review: I recently had the privlage of reading this newest book by Creech before it was published! The book is full of fun and, like her others, hard to put down. The main character gives readers a good look at being away from home and making new friends from all over the world. I give this book four stars only because I like Absolutely Normal Chaos just a little bit more. Sharon Creech has done it again! If you liked her other books, be sure to pick this one up as soon as it hits your bookstore or library shelves!
Rating:
Summary: Bloomability
Review: This book was great!! It was interesting and entertaining. For me, the plot of the book was,well a little weak, but the way Sharon Chreech wrote the book it still made sence. Also the book was very realistic, so I could relate to many of Dinnie's problems. I learned a lot from this book and would definatly recomend it!!
Rating:
Summary: Yo!
Review: "Bloomability" is absolutely fantastic. It depicts the journey of "Dinnie-the-Dot" as she travels to Switzerland to attend an international boarding school where her uncle is the headmaster. There, she is exposed to a variety of cultures and people and thus her life is inevitably changed forever. I found this novel extremely interesting, I've always wanted to go to boarding school! You just can't put this book down; a wonderful MUST READ. An element that I especially love in Sharon Creech's books is that all her characters from each book are intertwined with each other. There are references such as in Bloomability, her aunt mentions a girl ( Zinny from "Chasing Redbird") who is clearing a trail in a postcard. "Walk Two Moons" and "Absolutely Normal Chaos" also have characters which interchange and appear in both novels. I strongly reccomend everyone, (children, adults, pre-teens, young adults,etc) to read this novel, and other books that Sharon Creech has written. You'll never be the same again.
Rating:
Summary: Allison's Eye for Bloomability
Review: Domenica Santolina Doone also referred to as Dinnie lived with her father, mother, sister and brother in many different places in America until her sister got pregnant, her brother began getting into trouble and her father found a new "opportunity" for them in another town. Dinnie's mother arranged for her sister Sandy and brother-in-law Max to take Dinnie on a new "opportunity" for the three of them. The new opportunity was that Uncle Max was becoming the headmaster at a boarding school in Lugano, Switzerland, Sandy was going to be a teacher at the boarding school and Dinnie was to be one of their newest students. At first Dinnie was very scared, as any child would be in a new place with family that she hardly knew and where her language was second to everyone else's. Before school started Dinnie met Guthrie, a very spirited boy, and a girl named Lila who was never happy with anything. Dinnie found comfort in Guthrie and Lila and over time she found out that their lives were not perfect much like hers wasn't. Dinnie started getting comfortable at the school and with her Aunt Sandy and Uncle Max and she enjoyed the school trips that they went on with all of her new friends, which made her learn new things about herself and her friends. Dinnie realized that this "opportunity" which had frightened her so much in the beginning had after all been a good one.
I loved this book! Once I began reading it I could hardly put it down, it is a great example of realistic fiction and could be used in many ways in a classroom. The book expanded my awareness of others who come from families who face problems such as teen pregnancies, troubled children and trying to make sure that children get "opportunities" that will help them later in life. Sharon Creech (also author of the Newberry Medal winner Walk Two Moons) didn't sugar-coat the fact that Dinnie's family had problems; she gave a truthful account of what life is like for some families. I love that Creech chose to write about this little girl's opportunity because it is such an original idea. Sure, people face new "opportunities" everyday but this account made me think of things that I was not looking forward to facing in the future and it helped me to look at them as "opportunities" that will help me grow as a person.
In the classroom this book could be used to expand student's awareness of Switzerland. It could be used in a literature cluster about the country. There are details in the book about the geography of Switzerland and there is a hand drawn map in the front of the book of where Dinnie lives in comparison to where other things in Switzerland are and compared to where her friends live when they are not in Lugano. Students could also write letters to Dinnie telling her how they would feel about an "opportunity" like hers and what they would like to do most in Switzerland.
Rating:
Summary: Everyone Should Read!
Review: Bloomability is all about the charming, humorous adventures of Dinnie, a lovable 13-year old girl, as she makes a new home overseas in Switzerland, far from the parents and siblings she loves. Her aunt and uncle take her from her unstable homelife to live with them as they teach at an American school in Switzerland. Dinnie is very reluctant and unhappy at first, until she starts to make some truly unique international friends who help her feel more at home and help her discover who she really is. And when something happens that threatens the life of one of her new friends, she realizes just how important they are to her.
I love reading stories about adventures overseas and this book fully satisfied this craving. When Dinnie went skiing in the Alps, I was with her, imagining the warmth of the lodge and the feeling of flying down the slopes. When she went fishing in the woods near the school, I was with her, picturing the beauty. I highly recommend this book to people who enjoy contemporary realistic fiction, relationship books, or stories about other countries!
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