Short - a review 10.13.16

When you think about the books you love... what stands out to you?  What made you love it?  I have found that I love books for different reasons.  A book can pull me in for a variety of reasons.  

I was fortunate enough to obtain an ARC of Holly Goldberg Sloan's upcoming middle grade novel, Short, from our indie bookstore.  And trust me, this book is not short on anything.

Short

by Holly Goldberg Sloan

published by Dial Books

Goodreads summary:

Julia is very short for her age, but by the end of the summer run of The Wizard of Oz, she ll realize how big she is inside, where it counts. She hasn t ever thought of herself as a performer, but when the wonderful director of Oz casts her as a Munchkin, she begins to see herself in a new way. As Julia becomes friendly with the poised and wise Olive one of the adults with dwarfism who ve joined the production s motley crew of Munchkins and with her deeply artistic neighbor, Mrs. Chang, Julia s own sense of self as an artist grows. Soon, she doesn t want to fade into the background and it s a good thing, because her director has more big plans for Julia! 
Bubbling over with humor and tenderness, this is an irresistible story of self-discovery and of the role models who forever change us."

My thoughts:

As I said before, there is usually something that stands out to you in a book that makes you fall in love with it.  For me, in Short, it was the main character, Julia.  Julia has a defining characteristic - she's short.  Very short.  No medical reason behind it, just short.  And for Julia, she makes it work for her.  It's who she is.  

Although not her idea, she ends up being a Munchkin in the local university summer's production of The Wizard of Oz.  She finds a mentor who she really admires as a person, Olive.  Olive helps her be reflective about life and who she is and what she stands for.  Julia finds wisdom about life itself from the director of the play.  And she learns a little bit about the world around her from a neighbor. 

But what I loved was how Julia took in everything and analyzed it and explained it to the reader.  Take a look at a few of these lines:

Yeah.  That's pretty much true.

I kind of feel this way too.

Please tell me you laughed out loud...

Truth?

Julia definitely told us like it is - she has a unique way of looking at things that often made me think about how things get overanalyzed!  

It was comments like these that endeared me to Julia.  I cared about her, I wanted her to succeed.  I wanted her to be a confident person and see the good that is inside of her - the compassion and her ability to see others.

This was a book that I had to slow down once I was in the final chapters.  I wasn't ready to let go of Julia.  It's a book that will warrant a reread once it comes out in January.  Make sure you find a copy on January 31st!

* please note images of lines were taken from the advanced reading copy.  Any lines/words could change in final publication.