Alida's Song
Written by Gary Paulsen
Reviewed by Victoria S. (age 11)
This novel is about a boy who is saved from a miserable summer of selling papers to the drunks at the bar, hoping they will be drunk enough to lay down a ten or twenty dollar bill. He has to be careful at home to not step on glass and to dodge the bottles going at him from his parents. Luckily he has a small cubical-like area, in the basement, where he stays most of the time, just as long as he lights the furnace and keeps it going. This is pretty much his only space in the house that is his own. One day he gets a letter from his grandma, Alida, to come work on the Nelsons farm; he immediately packs his bags and is gone. Once Gunnar Nelson comes to get him they have to drive back to the farm .Gunnar asks the boy if he could drive, when the boy is only 14! Gunnar explains on the way that he works at the farm and that the brakes broke on the way to the city the boy lives in. The boy works on the farm and has a great summer. Read as he gets attacked by geese, drives without brakes, meet?s a girl, and finds a secret at the end.
I think that this book was exquisite. This book was a piece of work by Gary Paulsen. This novel was a very different from the way of Gary Paulsen?s writings usually are. They are most of the time they are suspenseful and adventurous. This one was different. It had real life situations. It had everything in it. The drama, the comedy and the gooses? You are going to have to read the book to find out. The character Alida seems a lot like my grandma that lives in America. It doesn?t matter if I?m in Kansas or in a hole in my back yard! She?ll come find me no matter what. This is my perspective on Alida?s Song.
I would probably recommend this book to anyone willing to read it. This novel is a slight bit more appropriate for kid?s 4th -5th grade and up. This book is one I would like to have in my very own collection. I would read it over and over again. I know people would agree with me. The genera might interest people that like surprise and love real life situations. This book might attract a lot of different kinds of people. That is why I recommend it.