CANR
WORK TITLE: The Summer of Bad Ideas
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://kierastewart.com/
CITY:
STATE: CA
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 269
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiera-stewart-167b3141/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Female.
EDUCATION:American University, B.A. (psychology).
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author and yoga instructor. Worked in television publicity in Washington, DC, for several years; yoga instructor, beginning 2008.
WRITINGS
Author of a blog.
SIDELIGHTS
In Fetching, her debut young-adult novel, Kiera Stewart offers “a lighter take on mean girls and middle-school life,” in the words of School Library Journal critic Kathleen E. Gruver. In the work, Stewart introduces readers to Olivia Albert, an eighth grader who suffers at the bottom of the pecking order at Hubert C. Frost Middle School. Olivia and her fellow outcasts endure one humiliation after another at the hands of Brynne Shawnson, a popular classmate who sets the agenda of an influential clique. Tired of being bullied, Olivia decides on an innovative approach to changing Brynne’s behavior: applying the training methods she has learned from her grandmother, a noted canine behaviorist. By rewarding positive behaviors and ignoring negative ones, Olivia manages to disrupt the social hierarchy, but a number of unintended consequences prompt the teen to question her true motives.
In Voice of Youth Advocates Cindy Faughnan applauded Stewart’s “clear, competent writing” in Fetching, the critic adding that the author’s mix of “interesting characters and situations will keep middle school readers reading.” Several reviewers praised the novel’s sensitive, well-drawn protagonist, a Publishers Weekly contributor writing that “Olivia emerges as a sympathetic heroine.” A critic for Kirkus Reviews stated that the “warm and charmingly self-deprecating narrative voice” Olivia exhibits in Fetching “relates her feelings with a surprising and touching expressiveness.” “Stewart offers something flesh by suggesting that old enemies can sometimes become new friends,” asserted Erin Anderson in Booklist. School Library Journal reviewer, Kathleen E. Gruver, commented: “This is an entertaining, if predictable, read, and the protagonist is a sympathetic character, flaws and all.”
In 2015, Stewart released her second middle grade novel, How to Break a Heart. One of the volume’s two main characters is Mabry Collins, who is thirteen years old and has had bad luck in love of late. After being dumped by eighteen boys in a row, Mabry begins dating Nick Wainwright, on whom she had long had an intense crush. When Nick also breaks up with Mabry, she is devastated. One of her classmates, Thad Bell, approaches her with a plan to get even with Nick. He tells Mabry that he can teach her how to win Nick back again. Nick will be Mabry’s date to the cotillion, Thad predicts, but Mabry must promise to break up with him afterwards. The story continues with Thad and Mabry narrating alternate chapters of the book. It is revealed that Thad has a reason for wanting Nick to be hurt. Additionally, Thad is still grieving the loss of his father. The accident in which his father died also caused his mother to become disabled. Thad attempts to take on more responsibility in his family, while also confronting difficult feelings of grief and anger. Meanwhile, Mabry studies Spanish, including some of her vocabulary words in the chapters she narrates. She also learns lessons about love from a telenovela called La Vida Rica. Eventually, Mabry begins to think she may not want Nick back after all.
How to Break a Heart received a mixed assessment from a writer in Kirkus Reviews. “Although overlong and narrowly aimed at romantically minded early-adolescent girls, this story will reward tenacious readers with a touching conclusion,” commented the writer.
A girl named Edith deals with family issues and becomes more comfortable in her own skin over the course of a summer in Stewart’s 2017 novel, The Summer of Bad Ideas. After the death of her quirky grandmother, Petunia, Edith and her family travel to Pinne, Florida to get Petunia’s affairs in order and put her house up for sale. Edith never met her grandmother, so she takes the opportunity to learn more about her through the things she has left behind. Edith discovers a list Petunia had written when she was a girl called “Petunia’s Good Ideas for Summertime.” One of the ideas has to do with inventing a new identity. Edith decides to follow Petunia’s list and begins by recreating herself as “Edie.” Eventually, she learns that being true to herself is best. Meanwhile, she gets to know her beautiful and popular cousin, Rae, who has been cast in commercials. Edith is regularly annoyed by her interactions with her eight-year-old genius twin siblings, who have already become members of Mensa and is embarrassed by her dad’s attempts to be cool. Eventually, statements that are not truthful cause the friendship between Edith and Rae to be jeopardized, and Edith must find a way to salvage it.
Critics offered favorable assessments of The Summer of Bad Ideas. A Kirkus Reviews contributor remarked: “Through Edie’s candid voice, Stewart pens a bright, funny gem that charms with its spot-on sarcasm and wit.” The same contributor described the volume as “a fun, quick read.” “Stewart’s whimsical contemporary coming-of-age story is full of sweetness and moments of sheer chutzpah,” asserted Alpha DeLap in School Library Journal. A critic on the Lola’s Reviews Web site suggested: “This was a fun read. … It was written, the pace was well done and the characters all acted very realistically.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, October 15, 2011, Erin Anderson, review of Fetching, p. 60; November 15, 2015, Teri Lesesne, review of How to Break a Heart, p. 54.
Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2011, review of Fetching; September 15, 2015, review of How to Break a Heart; April 1, 2017, review of The Summer of Bad Ideas.
Publishers Weekly, October 3, 2011, review of Fetching, p. 69.
School Library Journal, November, 2011, Kathleen E. Gruver, review of Fetching, p. 140; May, 2017, Alpha DeLap, review of The Summer of Bad Ideas, p. 92.
Voice of Youth Advocates, December, 2011, Cindy Faughnan, review of Fetching, p. 501.
ONLINE
Kiera Stewart Home Page, http://www.kierastewart.com (May 31, 2017).
Lola’s Reviews, http://lolasreviews.com/ (May 2, 2017), review of The Summer of Bad Ideas.
Teen Lit Review, http://theteenlitreview.blogspot.com/ (March 29, 2016), review of Fetching.*
Kiera Stewart is a writer for teens and tweens. Her qualifications include never having gotten wisdom teeth. She's been writing since she was five, but with titles such as "Mixed Feelings," "Old Monster, the Bees, and Karen," and the self-congratulatory, "The Amazing Story!" it's no wonder FETCHING was her first published novel.
She has written two novels since FETCHING. HOW TO BREAK A HEART, was also released by Disney-Hyperion (2015); her third, THE SUMMER OF BAD IDEAS, was released by Harper-Collins in May 2017. She lives in Northern California but currently spend much of her time in Nicaragua, learning the language and culture, and doing research for her fourth novel.
Learn more about Kiera at www.kierastewart.com. You can also find Kiera's author page on Facebook by searching for @kierastewartbooks.
Unable to copy bio.
QUOTED: "Through Edie's candid voice, Stewart pens a bright, funny gem that charms with its spot-on sarcasm and wit."
"a fun, quick read."
Stewart, Kiera: THE SUMMER OF BAD IDEAS
(Apr. 1, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Stewart, Kiera THE SUMMER OF BAD IDEAS Harper/HarperCollins (Children's Fiction) $16.99 5, 2 ISBN: 978-0-06-236021-2
Sometimes getting grounded is the first step to freedom, especially when you're using bad ideas to guide your path. Edith and her quirky, offbeat family travel to Florida for the summer after the passing of her grandmother Petunia. Though she never met her grandma, she feels an odd kinship with the nontraditional woman, especially after finding Petunia's old list of goals, which comes with a warning: "Not for the Fainthearted!!!" Feeling abandoned by her back-home friend, Taylor, and lost in her family dynamic--overprotective mother, wannabe cool dad, and obnoxious, genius younger twin siblings, she is desperately in need of an identity of her own. Preferably one that does not include "boring" as a description, a moniker she overheard at a recent social gathering where Taylor was accepted but she was not. Renaming herself Edie and working with her almost-famous cousin Rae (she's acted in commercials) for the summer as the family repairs Petunia's old house to sell forces the reluctant dare-taker to want to push her limits. However, a mishmash of lies and half-truths between Edie and Rae threatens to destroy their budding friendship. Through Edie's candid voice, Stewart pens a bright, funny gem that charms with its spot-on sarcasm and wit. Readers will appreciate the clever way she re-creates the awkwardness of trying to figure yourself out. This middle-grade friendship book makes a fun, quick read. (Fiction. 8-12)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Stewart, Kiera: THE SUMMER OF BAD IDEAS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Apr. 2017. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA487668511&it=r&asid=dbae003ee48cd47d9add16a9ccea85a8. Accessed 25 May 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A487668511
How to Break a Heart
Teri Lesesne
112.6 (Nov. 15, 2015): p54.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
How to Break a Heart. By Kiera Stewart. Dec. 2015. 320p. Disney/Hyperion, $16.99 (9781423171812). Gr. 5-8.
If only the course of true love ran like it did on her telenovelas. Unfortunately, real life is much messier. So, when Mabry's boyfriend's mother calls to break up with her on his behalf, she is devastated and willing to do anything to get Nick back. Mabry's friends are not quite as sympathetic as she would like--they are critical of Nick's behavior and tell her that she's better off without him. Only Thad, a boy who dumped Mabry in fourth grade, seems willing to help her get Nick back in time for the cotillion. But Thad has an ulterior motive, one that will complicate the reconciliation. Alternate chapters are told from Thad's and Mabry's points of view, cluing readers in on the full story. Chapters from Mabry's point of view open with Spanish vocabulary words: romper, herder, doler--all words to express her anguish. Thad's chapters reflect his feelings as well: crash and burn, crime and punishment. Margo Rabb's Kissing in America (2015) would be a perfect read-alike.--Teri Lesesne
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Lesesne, Teri. "How to Break a Heart." Booklist, 15 Nov. 2015, p. 54+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA436233211&it=r&asid=cce939d4603a19cb3f109c0cdc812230. Accessed 25 May 2017.
QUOTED: "Although overlong and narrowly aimed at romantically minded early-adolescent girls, this story will reward tenacious readers with a touching conclusion."
Gale Document Number: GALE|A436233211
Stewart, Kiera: HOW TO BREAK A HEART
(Sept. 15, 2015):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Stewart, Kiera HOW TO BREAK A HEART Disney-Hyperion (Children's Fiction) $16.99 12, 29 ISBN: 978-1-4231-7181-2
After 13-year-old Mabry Collins is dropped by her heartthrob, Nick Wainwright, (her 19th straight dumping in a row), Thad Bell, a boy with his own grudge against Nick, promises to teach her how to become the yin to Nick's yang. Thad's lessons come with a condition, though: once Nick is smitten, Mabry has to promise to break his heart. It's a cute premise, though the problems the two protagonists face are so disproportionately weighted that its execution feels uneven. Mabry, Stewart's one-note histrionic protagonist, primarily spends her days obsessing about love, picking up her exaggerated romantic ideas from La Vida Rica, a telenovela she watches religiously. On the other hand, Thad's father recently died in an accident that also left his mother disabled, and he's still reeling from the loss as well as his new familial responsibilities. So while Mabry's problems are essentially trivial, Thad's are deeply profound, which makes it difficult to summon up sympathy for the tediously self-involved heroine. Still, Thad and Mabry have a nice give-and-take--they slowly develop a real connection--and as Mabry grows emotionally, readers' impatience should largely dissipate. Although overlong and narrowly aimed at romantically minded early-adolescent girls, this story will reward tenacious readers with a touching conclusion. (Fiction. 10-13)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Stewart, Kiera: HOW TO BREAK A HEART." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Sept. 2015. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA428372730&it=r&asid=2ae6afffd9d2801f5f096737f24cfb4a. Accessed 25 May 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A428372730
Stewart, Kiera. Fetching
Jenna Yee
34.5 (Dec. 2011): p501.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2011 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
http://www.voya.com
4Q * 4P * M * J
Stewart, Kiera. Fetching. Hyperion, 2011. 304p. $16.99. 978-1423138457.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Eighth grader Olivia lives with her grandmother, Corny, after her mother's mental illness lands her in the hospital and her father's job takes him out of the area. Her friends are a group of misfits who suffer from the meanness of popular Brynne and her followers. Olivia helps Corny train dogs and decides that perhaps she can use the same training methods to change the behavior of kids in school. She and her friends begin to reward good behavior, which leads to Brynne losing all of her friends, her reputation, and the school election. Olivia worries that she has ruined Brynne's life, and she feels betrayed by her best friends because they told the secret about her mother. She abandons her friends and becomes friends with Brynne. In the end, she learns to accept her mother, reunites with her friends, and manages to keep Brynne as a friend as well.
Stewart writes with short chapters and clear, competent writing. Realistic dialogue and situations in school will be familiar to readers. Stewart shows the dog training methods in such a way that anyone who has ever trained a dog to do anything will recognize them--and maybe learn a few tricks as well. While the training of the students backfires for Olivia, she and her friends (and the reader) learn something about how their own behavior affects others. The interesting characters and situations will keep middle school readers reading.--Cindy Faughnan.
Fetching helps readers navigate the middle school hallways by relating middle school life to dog training. Told in first person, the story line is not unique but avoids redundancy with the similarities drawn between animals and humans. Stewart reveals backstory throughout the book, keeping readers interested enough to finish. 4Q, 4P.--Jenna Yee, Teen Reviewer.
Yee, Jenna
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Yee, Jenna. "Stewart, Kiera. Fetching." Voice of Youth Advocates, Dec. 2011, p. 501+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA275129028&it=r&asid=a7b03177fd47c16cf20fbaed734db6d0. Accessed 25 May 2017.
QUOTED: "Stewart offers something flesh by suggesting that old enemies can sometimes become new friends."
Gale Document Number: GALE|A275129028
Fetching
Erin Anderson
108.4 (Oct. 15, 2011): p60.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2011 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Fetching. By Kiera Stewart. Nov. 2011. 304p. Disney/Hyperion, $16.99 (9781423138457). Gr. 5-8.
Middle-school cliques are a whole lot like dog packs. And Olivia Albert knows a thing or two about dog training. Her beloved grandmother and guardian, Corny, is an expert canine behaviorist. Olivia decides, after suffering yet another orchestrated humiliation at the hands of cold-hearted Brynne and her popular friends, to apply what she knows about basic behavior modification and pack mentality to change the social structure at Hubert C. Frost Middle School. Using the seven basic breed groups to classify her classmates according to personality, she unleashes an all-out training regime on her entire school, rewarding kindness with smiles and candy and turning Brynne into a social outcast. Stewart offers a handy and easily understood metaphor to color the intricacies of middle-school relationships in a way that paints each character as multidimensional and real. The topic of dogs is a common one, but Stewart offers something flesh by suggesting that old enemies can sometimes become new friends.--Erin Anderson
Anderson, Erin
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Anderson, Erin. "Fetching." Booklist, 15 Oct. 2011, p. 60. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA271049376&it=r&asid=4f94c3e52a0bdc575ad525501086c1e7. Accessed 25 May 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A271049376
Fetching
258.40 (Oct. 3, 2011): p69.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2011 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Fetching
Kiera Stewart. Disney-Hyperion, $16.99 (304p) ISBN 978-1-4231-3845-7
A clever premise is taken a step too far to be believable in this first novel about the dog-eat-dog world of middle school. Eighth-grader Olivia, the granddaughter of a dog trainer, thinks she has a solution for the bullies who torment her and her friends: "use dog-training on everyone in school, secretly, of course." This means taking a more aggressive stance against the alpha girls and rewarding good behavior with treats, like homemade cookies and gum. The plan works better than expected, and some of the most vicious students are soon (literally) eating out of the underdogs' hands. But Olivia learns that people are far more resentful than canines when they realize they've been manipulated. The stow, which offers a generous quantity of dog puns, is formulaic, and Olivia's short-lived success and her eventual bonding with her archenemy, Brynne, are predictable. Nonetheless, Olivia emerges as a sympathetic heroine amid cookie-cutter villains and victims. Her internal conflicts, pertaining to low self-esteem and unresolved feelings toward her absent, mentally ill mother, come across as more genuine than her struggles with peers. Ages 10-up. (Nov.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Fetching." Publishers Weekly, 3 Oct. 2011, p. 69. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA269028605&it=r&asid=e0028c9bd56c0b752234a42d4176a274. Accessed 25 May 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A269028605
Stewart, Kiera: FETCHING
(Oct. 1, 2011):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2011 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Stewart, Kiera FETCHING Disney Hyperion (Children's Fiction) $16.99 11, 8 ISBN: 978-1-4231-3845-7
In a high-concept approach to middle-school hierarchies, a group of unpopular eighth graders uses dog-training techniques to combat bullies. Narrator Olivia and her friends Delia, Mandy, Phoebe and Joey are Hubert C. Frost Middle School's "Marcies"-losers. Reigning mean girl Brynne Shawnson and her cronies constantly target them with pranks and ridicule their acne, ill-fitting clothes, infected eyebrow piercing and other traits both real and invented. While helping her dog-trainer grandmother rehabilitate a grass-phobic Mexican Hairless, Olivia hatches her plan. She and her friends launch a three-stage training operation that involves distractions, rewards and ignoring negative behaviors. As the middle-school social order re-forms itself in both predictable and unpredictable ways, Olivia struggles with abandonment and shame about her mother, who has left home for a mental facility. Although the therapist Olivia sees is so ineffectual as to be off-putting rather than comic, Olivia's warm and charmingly self-deprecating narrative voice relates her feelings with a surprising and touching expressiveness. The comparison between dogs and people often feels apt, though it is occasionally carried too far-it's a bit disconcerting to hear Olivia liken her crush to a chocolate Lab, for example, and the notion that ignoring bullies' negative behavior will make them stop seems sadly optimistic. A familiar but well-executed underdog tale. (Fiction. 10-13)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Stewart, Kiera: FETCHING." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Oct. 2011. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA268238663&it=r&asid=68a6355fd5b0ca6f52fda8d1ab503ff7. Accessed 25 May 2017.
QUOTED: "Stewart's whimsical contemporary coming-of-age story is full of sweetness and moments of sheer chutzpah."
Gale Document Number: GALE|A268238663
Stewart, Kiera. The Summer of Bad Ideas
Alpha DeLap
63.5 (May 2017): p92.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
STEWART, Kiera. The Summer of Bad Ideas. 304p. HarperCollins. May 2017. Tr $16.99. ISBN 9780062360212.
Gr 4-6--Edith, her academic parents, and her eight-year old twin siblings (both already members of Mensa) together return to rural Pinne, FL, to prepare Edith's recently deceased grandmother Petunia's house for sale. In the Florida swamp, surrounded by her grandmother's pet snakes and lizards, Edith meets her cousin Rae for the first time. Rae is everything Edith wishes she could be: brave, glamorous, and popular--with a viral Instagram feed and a long-distance boyfriend she met while doing a Shakespeare play. When Edith discovers her grandmother's long-lost list from childhood, "Petunia's Good Ideas for Summertime," she sets out to create "Edie," a new version of herself. These adventurous challenges, though seemingly "bad ideas" at first glance, once actualized allow Edith to find out who she is and what she values in ways that are both comforting and somewhat unexpected. Stewart's whimsical contemporary coming-of-age story is full of sweetness and moments of sheer chutzpah. VERDICT A fine supplementary addition to medium and large collections in need of summer reads.--Alpha DeLap, St. Thomas School, Medina, WA
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
DeLap, Alpha. "Stewart, Kiera. The Summer of Bad Ideas." School Library Journal, May 2017, p. 92. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA491032121&it=r&asid=bb201050fb37337458e45dfb5b129738. Accessed 25 May 2017.
QUOTED: "This is an entertaining, if predictable, read, and the protagonist is a sympathetic character, flaws and all."
Gale Document Number: GALE|A491032121
Stewart, Kiera. Fetching
Kathleen E. Gruver
57.11 (Nov. 2011): p140.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2011 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
STEWART, Kiera. Fetching. 296p. Hyperion/ Disney. Nov. 2011. Tr $16.99. ISBN 978-14231-3845-7. LC number unavailable.
Gr S-9--Hubert C. Frost Middle School is full of dogs of every type, with alphas in charge and lesser pack members doing their bidding. Or, rather, it is full of middle schoolers, all of whom have definite positions in the school's social hierarchy. Unpopular eighth-grader Olivia and her equally unpopular friends from the Bored Game Club are constantly made the butt of practical jokes by kids in the clique that rules the school. Tiring of the bullying, Olivia decides to apply the dog-training techniques she has learned from her grandmother, a professional dog behaviorist, on her classmates. At first, the training seems to work beautifully. Olivia and her friends turn the tables on the kids who have been taunting them, and they find themselves becoming social leaders of the school. Predictably, however, Olivia finds that things aren't as simple as they seem. She and her friends begin to behave just like the students who mistreated them, and Brynne, the mean popular girl, turns out to be extremely vulnerable and to have a lot in common with Olivia. As the class election approaches, Olivia feels so guilty that she confesses all to Brynne, who is outraged about having been trained like a dog and tells the whole school what has been going on. This is an entertaining, if predictable, read, and the protagonist is a sympathetic character, flaws and all. The details of the dog training are fairly accurate, and it is an amusing plot device. Give this one to tweens looking for a lighter take on mean girls and middle-school life.--Kathleen E. Gruver, Burlington County Library, Westampton, NJ
Gruver, Kathleen E.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Gruver, Kathleen E. "Stewart, Kiera. Fetching." School Library Journal, Nov. 2011, p. 140. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA272077914&it=r&asid=c7e496dd0c75303bf25ce78ecfe86a85. Accessed 25 May 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A272077914
QUOTED: "This was a fun read. ... It was written, the pace was well done and the characters all acted very realistically."
Review: The Summer of Bad Ideas by Kiera Stewart
May 2, 2017 Lola Contemporary, Review 10
LolaReview
The Summer of Bad IdeasThe Summer of Bad Ideas
by Kiera Stewart
Rating: 3 stars
Genre: Middle Grade Contemporary
Blurb:
In this funny, big-hearted friendship story, perfect for fans of Wendy Mass and Linda Urban, twelve-year-old Edie and her impossibly cool cousin, Rae, set out to complete a mysterious list of “Good Ideas for Summertime” that their eccentric late grandmother wrote back when she was their age.
But good ideas? Most of them seem like bad ideas. Reckless. Foolish. Ridiculous. Still, by accomplishing everything on the list, rule-abiding Edie feels certain that she can become the effortlessly brave adventurer she dreams of being, just like her daring cousin and bold grandmother. For this one summer at least, bad ideas are the best shot she has at becoming who she wants to be.
Bad Idea Number One: It’s time for a new set of rules.
My Review:
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through Edelweiss. I voluntarily reviewed it.
I don’t often pick up Middle Grade books, but I do like to read them now and then. The pretty cover and interesting concept of this one caught my attention and I decided to give it a try. The Summer of Bad Ideas was a fun read. I quickly read through it and had a fun time reading this one. The story focuses on Edith, who feels boring and not so brave and she tries to change that by following a list of good ideas from her grandmother that they find. Which turns out to be more a list of bad ideas, hence the title.They never met their grandmother and now she’s dead and the family has to clean up her house, which means a summer spend in Florida.
I thought the concept of a list they follow was a fun set up for the book. Edith thinks the list will make her more brave and focuses strongly of trying to do all the things on the list. It’s more the road of trying to follow the list that changes her or maybe just everything that happens that summer. It was nice to see her change over the course of the book. Not everything goes according to plan, actually a lot goes wrong, but that’s part of the experience. I liked the random encounters with the town’s people they have and how they all knew their grandmother.
While there’s the list and Edith her friendship with her cousin, who is brave and fearless in her eyes, there are some other sub plot lines as well. There’s a strong focus on friendship, a bit of family thrown in and a bit about growing up and finding yourself. My favorite part of the book was actually getting to know Petunia, the grandmother. Even though she’s dead, them being in her house and around her things gives the reader a chance to get to know her. She seemed like a great person. I didn’t care as much for Rae, Edith’s cousin and Edith makes some valid points towards the end of the book that I agreed with. But I did get how Rae seemed like the brave type of person Edith wanted to be. I would’ve liked to get to know both cousins a bit better.
It’s been a long time since I was Edith’s age, which sometimes makes it a bit hard for me to fully get into Middle Grade books. It can be hard to relate to characters that are so much younger. Although in this case I was able to relate to Edith pretty well, some aspects of her reminded me of how I was at that age, but it mostly serves to remind me I am glad I am not that age anymore.
I did think the book was very well written, the first person point of view really worked here and the pace was well done. I also thought the characters were all very realistic. They all seemed pretty normal and how they acted felt very realistic for kids their age. The twins were a fun addition with how they sprouted trivia. Although at the same time it felt a tad overdone at times as all they do is state fact/ trivia and play intellectual games. Then again I am not really sure what’s normal for smart kids their age, so maybe that is.
To summarize: This was a fun read! I would recommend it to everyone looking for a fun Middle Grade book featuring a summer in Florida and a list. I liked the set-up for this book and the focus on the list. Although my favorite part was getting to know Petunia a bit, even though she wasn’t around anymore. It was written, the pace was well done and the characters all acted very realistically. I could relate a bit to Edith as I recognized a few characteristics of myself at that age, but mostly it was a reminder I am glad I am not that age anymore. All in all I am glad I gave this a try as it was a fun read.
Fetching by Kiera Stewart
Title: Fetching
Author: Kiera Stewart
Pages: 304
Book Type: Realistic Fiction
Reviewer: Hannah B.
Grades: 6-10
I have just finished reading Fetching by Kiera Stewart. This book was about a young girl named Olivia, Olivia’s mom ran away when she was young so she moved out to live with her grandma who is a professional dog trainer. Olivia and her friends are in the 8th grade and not very popular; the popular kids are always pulling mean pranks on them and making up mean rumors. They have now had enough of it and come up with a plan to make themselves popular. They use dog training techniques to train the people at their school to be nicer to them. Soon, everything was going great, but then it all fell apart for Olivia. When the most popular girl in school turns into the most unpopular, she catches on to what was going on. Read Fetching to find out the rest.
I really liked this book because of my love of dogs and the relations I can make to the characters. I hope that other people will be interested in this book and maybe the other books by Kiera Stewart. I know that I will be re-reading this book soon so I can experience the suspense, thrill, and romance that is in this book. Read Fetching by Kiera Stewart to experience it too!
Posted 29th March 2016 by Don Eckert