My Review
Izzy Kline is going to fourth grade, and she’s nervous about it. She spends her time wondering what the year is going to entail for her – who will be her friend? Will she get the lead spot in the school play? Will the things going on in her home go back to normal? Will the butterflies in her tummy settle down any time soon?
Izzy Kline Has Butterflies is a very well written book that tells the story of Izzy Kline’s life as a new fourth grade student. Since the story is told over the course of the year in small moments (such as recess or during normal days at home), we really get to take a look into Izzy Kline’s day-to-day life without only focusing on the bigger moments (I really love books like this, because I always feel like I get to know the characters better that way).
As far as Izzy’s character goes, I found it easy to follow along with her during the second half of the book, because in the first half she seemed to jump around from one thing to the next a bit quickly. However, once I really got a feel for her story telling, it was easy to laugh along with her and experience all of the emotions she felt, like feeling excitement for the big play that she wanted to play the lead in so badly.
Unfortunately, the book was a little short, which was a bummer, but since it’s written in verse for middle graders, it probably works better to make younger readers stick with the book and really enjoy the writing style. I think this is a brilliant way to introduce younger readers to falling in love with poetry and novels in verse.
Speaking of verse – the entire book is written in verse, and it really makes it a breeze to read through and quite enjoyable, as well. When novels are written in verse, they tend to carry a lot of emotion in the words they contain, making it easy to get attached to the characters and the story. This is also only the second book written in verse for middle grade readers that I’ve come across, so I have to say that I was impressed by this one! It’s definitely a book that I would share with my own daughters.
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