But You Promised Book Reviews: Touch Blue
“Wishes are slippery things. You have to be very specific or you can get exactly what you wished for and still end up with nothing.”
I did. I did promise book reviews. So, here's one for you. A children's book! There is a children's book that I have heard only good things about called Rules. Unfortunately, when I went to the library, they didn't have it. But they had something else written by that author, and it looked good: Touch Blue. It was short, like a children's book should be. I thought I'd give it a go. Great book!
Touch Blue is a story about a girl, Tess, on a lobstering island on Maine. Her family, and a lot of other members of the town, decide to accept foster children into their homes, in order to raise the number of children on the island. If they don't get more children on the island, the state of Maine will shut down their schoolhouse, and most of the people will have to leave the island for the mainland. Tess and her sister, Libby, are excited for a new friend and playmate in their family. The foster child, Aaron, whose mother has lost all possibility of regaining custody, is not as excited for his "home" that he "knows" won't keep. I guess I will start by saying that this is another book that adds to the disproportionate number of people living on fishing islands in New England in children's books. It seems to be a popular setting.
It is a cute story, and it does a good job of addressing the concerns for foster children. It would be a thinker for any child, and enjoyable, too. However, I will say that there seems to be some character-poofery. What is character-poofery, you ask? Character-poofery is one of the easiest things to do, but also one of the worst things to do, and one of the hardest things for any author to avoid (I, for one, as a writer, find myself struggling with it all the time). Character-poofery is when you know that a character is going to change, develop or change their mind, or maybe fall in love, or something like that, but you don't know how to make it happen. And so you poof them. No process. Just the change.
The other thing that concerns me in the story would probably concern no one else. For those of you who don't know, I have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. And not like those people who say, "I like things in order, I have OCD." I went to therapy (CBT) for it for a few years, and it affected some relationships with my family for awhile. It was a struggle, and it consumed hours of my day. Tess, in the story, has a lot of mannerisms that many others would think are just endearing quirks and kind of quaint or cute. As a person with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, I would be worried about Tess is she was real. Obsession with good-luck charms, and the anxiety is causes her when she doesn't have good luck charms; involved rituals to ward off something bad happening; feeling unbalanced and anxious when something is not in the right pocket. These are all OCD tendencies--there is an obsession (something that has to be), a compulsion (something you have to do to make the obsession) and an accompanying anxiety. I know that she's in a fishing place, and I know that fishing is a superstitious world, however, I was genuinely concerned for her until I realized she wasn't a real person. I thought of what her life would be as these tendencies took hold in her adolescence and the future ahead of her. Maybe there will be a sequel where she battles her OCD.
Anyways, it's a children's book that I would recommend to any child. However, it doesn't measure up to children's writers like Elizabeth George Speare, Katherine Paterson or Avi. I could see it as a Newbery Honor, but it's just not quite there. Probably 3 or 4 stars.
It is a cute story, and it does a good job of addressing the concerns for foster children. It would be a thinker for any child, and enjoyable, too. However, I will say that there seems to be some character-poofery. What is character-poofery, you ask? Character-poofery is one of the easiest things to do, but also one of the worst things to do, and one of the hardest things for any author to avoid (I, for one, as a writer, find myself struggling with it all the time). Character-poofery is when you know that a character is going to change, develop or change their mind, or maybe fall in love, or something like that, but you don't know how to make it happen. And so you poof them. No process. Just the change.
The other thing that concerns me in the story would probably concern no one else. For those of you who don't know, I have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. And not like those people who say, "I like things in order, I have OCD." I went to therapy (CBT) for it for a few years, and it affected some relationships with my family for awhile. It was a struggle, and it consumed hours of my day. Tess, in the story, has a lot of mannerisms that many others would think are just endearing quirks and kind of quaint or cute. As a person with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, I would be worried about Tess is she was real. Obsession with good-luck charms, and the anxiety is causes her when she doesn't have good luck charms; involved rituals to ward off something bad happening; feeling unbalanced and anxious when something is not in the right pocket. These are all OCD tendencies--there is an obsession (something that has to be), a compulsion (something you have to do to make the obsession) and an accompanying anxiety. I know that she's in a fishing place, and I know that fishing is a superstitious world, however, I was genuinely concerned for her until I realized she wasn't a real person. I thought of what her life would be as these tendencies took hold in her adolescence and the future ahead of her. Maybe there will be a sequel where she battles her OCD.
Anyways, it's a children's book that I would recommend to any child. However, it doesn't measure up to children's writers like Elizabeth George Speare, Katherine Paterson or Avi. I could see it as a Newbery Honor, but it's just not quite there. Probably 3 or 4 stars.
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