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“Melted my heart, thoughtful, and twisted.“
Reading age
8-12
Genre
Science-fiction
Publisher
Katherine Tegen Books
Publication date
March 1, 2022
My brief summary of the book
Mr. and Mrs. Sterling, a wealthy couple, have a baby called Maximilian. They wanted Max to be loved by the other kids when he grew up. So, they enrolled him in a school with whatnots androids pretending to be kids. Six years later, Max threw a party to celebrate the end of 5th grade. Afterward, Max finds a note from his best friend Josie: “No matter what anyone tells you. I’m real.” What does this note mean? Will Max find out?
My thoughts
This book teaches a lot about kindness and the power of friendship. Josie and Max’s friendship melted my heart. Kindness is also the highlight of this whole book.
The story tackled the challenging subject of being a privileged kid or not.
There are also a lot of plot twists in the book and a big one in the middle of the book, but I can’t tell you. 😉 The plot twists made the story very intriguing.
The narrator’s aside chapters were very thoughtful. It explained to me more of the background information in the book, like, for example, about the whatnots. Never in all my years of reading have I seen whole chapters where the narrator directly addresses the readers. It was so clever.
My rating
About the author
Mrs. Haddix is from Ohio, a steady writer who lived in many places and even in Luxembourg (close to Belgium!). She grew up to be a news reporter and wrote over forty books for kids and teens.
More by the author
- Among the Hidden (Shadow Children Book 1)
- Found (The Missing Book 1)
- Running Out of Time
- Greystone Secret: The Strangers (book 1); Please read my review.
- Just Ella (The Palace Chronicles Book 1); Please read my review.
- And many more!
