Natalie StandifordReseñas

I very much adore this series. It next book may break my heart!

I very much adore this series. It next book may break my heart!

It is one of the worst storms ever - the snow has not stopped for days and it is 30 degrees below zero. But somehow Balto must get through. He is the lead dog of his sled team. And he is carrying medicine to sick children miles away in Nome, Alaska. He is their only hope. Can Balto find his way through the terrible storm? Find out in this exciting true story!

Another case of how despite being really sick of historical fiction, the right book can be the most powerful thing. This was epic. The start and introduction were confusing in terms of the timeline, but the characters were all very well-drawn and though I moved to New York City decades after Phoebe did, I could find a lot of parallels in my experience.

A real page turner!

My almost 7 year old read the whole thing all at once. She was familiar with the story from Magic Treehouse. Next time we go to NYC we are going to visit the Balto statue!

Nowhere near as good as "How to say Goodbye in Robot" but still enjoyable. I didn't connect with the characters and there just wasn't enough to the story to hold my attention.

Astrid Sees All, by Natalie Standiford, is about both a youthful embrace of all the experiences offered in 1980s Manhattan, and about running headlong into self-destruction.

New grad Phoebe follows her wild college friend Carmen to Manhattan, where the two dive right into drugs, clubs and men. It's a terribly unbalanced friendship, with Carmen firmly in the lead and Phoebe just trying to seem cool enough to tag along. This constantly reminds readers just how young Phoebe is. Carmen, with artistic, wealthy parents and a family apartment in Manhattan, is sheltered from a lot of possible consequences, but that only makes Carmen take bigger, wilder risks. And can anyone really be sheltered from addiction or heartbreak?

Full review in my book blog

A book that I start out loving and think is perfect but then goes off the rails gets a lower rating from me than a so-so book. Why did you have to do this, Natalie Standiford? I don't want to give a spoiler but let me put it like this. There's a thing that always happens to characters with a disability. And that thing happens in this book, which just pisses me off.

It took me awhile to get into this one but once it got going I enjoyed it. It isn't a typical love story, and I thought it did a good job of capturing a particular type of teen-smart, doesn't quite fit in but could if she wanted to, trying to find her place in the world. There was also an interesting side plot about her parents. There was a major plot point that I found unbelievable at first that kind of pulled me out of the book but it didn't ruin my enjoyment of the characters and writing.

Laura is spending a semester abroad in Soviet Russia when she meets an attractive local man, Alyosha, and begins spending more and more time with him, despite the warnings of her fellow American students and her program leaders. Is Alyosha all that he seems on the surface or does he have darker motives for befriending Laura?

This book seems like it'll be a traditional romance but it's really not quite that. It feels funny to call something set in the 1980s historical fiction, but for the intended audience it certainly is. Laura was both too naïve and too bland for me to really root for as a main character and despite the aura of mystery the author attempted to put around Alyosha and his fellow Russian friends, I didn't really care for any of them either. What interested me the most was the descriptions of Soviet Russia and how the tourists/visitors saw one side and the residents another.

Standiford's story is no doubt informed at least a little bit on her own experience as a study-abroad student in the USSR, which is a good thing for authenticity. However, her writing style is just so-so. This is an actual simile used in the text: "The words tumbled out of her mouth like cinnamon candies." What does that even mean? Are people walking around with cinnamon candies just falling out of their mouth all the time?

All in all though, this is a fine enough read for some light escapism to a different time and place.½

It took me a while (a few chapters) to get into this one but once I did, I couldn't put it down and finished it in a day. I was still in middle school during the time this book was set. MTV was a few years old but pictures of celebrities in New York were all over the gossip and teen magazines. Some of those same celebrities make brief appearances in this novel.

I was reminded of how bad trash smells in NYC during hot summers and was thankful there wasn't an olfactory component to the book. I've no doubt the place Phoebe and Carmen end up living in smelled just as bad. It felt very true to the times for gay men to be dying of an unnamed illness and for young women to disappear in the city and to seemingly have no one looking out for the dying and the missing.

Standiford plays with time a little bit in that she uses flashbacks to show where Phoebe and Carmen met in school, the time Phoebe spends at home during the funeral, and so on. She perfectly shows how it can be easy to feel like you're not "cool" enough or interesting enough for people to want to be around and the lengths a person will go to be liked. I loved the fortune telling job.

Overall, I found the novel very compelling but didn't like how neatly Carmen's disappearance was wrapped up at the end.

Fundamentally, I suppose this is a coming of age story, that follows Phoebe, a young 20 something who is left reeling following the unexpected death of her dad. Perhaps not wanting to face the trauma, she disappears into the seedy underbelly of New York City in the 1980’s, with her cherished friend Carmen as her companion. She struggles to survive by turning fortunes at a local night club. Perhaps inevitably, things turn dark and Phoebe faces the temptation of drugs, and alcohol. It doesn’t help that her good friend Carmen also seems to be vulnerable to the same misfortunes, so these girls are in a vicious feedback loop. The story is well written, I have heard that New York was a rather dangerous place in the 80’s and that comes across well. I myself struggled a bit with the overwhelming amount of narcotic use here and all these awful things that in large part seem to be spun from a toxic cocktail of extreme poverty and drug use. That said, it does end in a good place. I can see this story perhaps not appealing to everyone, as there are a lot of trauma triggers discussed here. Thank you to Netgalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own. Any quotes I use are from an unpublished copy and may not reflect the finished product.

Sadly, May has not been a great reading month for me. I picked up Astrid Sees All thinking it would be the book that saved me from this slump (I'd read several really good reviews for it), but it was just as disappointing. I honestly cannot remember the main character's name (I'm sure it will come to me later), because all she ever talked about was Carmen this and Carmen that. The main character was OBSESSED with Carmen! She salivated over every crumb of attention that her "friend" deigned to give her. Where were her other friends? A roommate was briefly mentioned, but I have no idea what happened to her after she moved in with other people.

I don't even want to get into the main character - AH! Phoebe! - describing her vagina as having a "plain milky smell," or how much her boyfriend (someone she didn't even like until Carmen suggested she give him a chance) enjoyed it. Phoebe had no original ideas and couldn't go to the bathroom without Carmen's permission. Their relationship was seriously fucked up. Once Phoebe realized that Carmen was "repelled" by people who wanted her attention, she started playing hard to get. Who does that? Oh, yeah! Psychotic people. (Everything about Phoebe's relationship with Mark - including Carmen's role and the information she withheld - was VERY strange.)

"I thought the problem was with me, that in some way I was unworthy of her confidence. What was I doing wrong? I looked around at the behavior of my fellow students and came to the conclusion that carmen sensed how much I wanted her to like me, and that repelled her. I opened my eyes and received the message blaring all over campus: vulnerability equals weakness, and weakness arouses contempt. I had only to hide my longing and my desire, and they would be fulfilled."

RED FLAG! This entire statement is problematic, and it honestly makes me think everyone involved needs therapy. Your longing and desire to be someone's friend? Why was Carmen so special? Why did Phoebe single her out and think she HAD to be her friend? Carmen wasn't even a nice person, yet that was who she wanted to emulate?

Let's backtrack a little! The guy Phoebe started dating only because Carmen said to? Yeah, she's absolutely terrible to him. He wasn't a great guy or anything, but she did use him and then admit to herself that not being as invested in the relationship gave her power over him. If you're thinking, "What the actual fuck?," join the club.

"I tried to comfort him, but the longer he groveled, the more disgusted I felt. Did Mark really like me this much? If he did, wasn't it kind of gross of him to show it?"

Oh, so now feelings are gross? If you do read this book, can you please explain Mark's off-the-wall monologue to me? It was so confusing! And what was the point? Pregnancy? Coffee? No free will? Please, don't leave me? You guys, my brain. *mimes explosion*

I really didn't like any of the characters and thought Phoebe consistently got worse as the story progressed. She just wasn't a good person, so I had no desire to continue reading about her. At one point, the rich kids were throwing a Gatsby-themed party, and she was disappointed that it was being held where they'd filmed the movie. Girl, you weren't even on the guest list and now you're complaining about where it's being held? Go fuck yourself.

"It wasn't very original of the host consortium to throw a Gatsby party in the Gatsby house."

Carmen. Carmen. Carmen. It's basically every third word Phoebe says or thinks to herself and I AM OVER IT. If this was supposed to be a book about Carmen, then she should have been the protagonist.

"I was sorry I'd hurt him, but not really, because it had been worth it. I'd glimpsed the golden world, and returning to it was my only goal."

She's so shallow! Seriously, all of the characters were awful. I stopped on page 53 because I couldn't take it anymore. I really wanted to like this book, but the characters made it impossible. The setting was interesting, but everything was ruined by Phoebe's commentary and her actions. Carmen was just as bad, but we're not in her head. Maybe a duel POV would have made her more likable? I doubt it, but anything's possible.

Oh, and everything the author wrote about Jack Kennedy (JFK's grandson, I think), only made this book feel even more unbelievable. He kept popping up in their lives (in class, at parties, etc.), and every interaction she had with him made me cringe. It just felt fake and forced, like the author needed a celebrity to make the story more interesting.

Also, the story went from the present to the past, but then jumped around in the past? It was weird. It wasn't necessarily hard to follow, but it did make it hard to get a grasp on the characters and what was happening in their lives. The ONE thing I liked about this book were the ticket stubs. I love the idea of using the titles of shows to tell fortunes or predict the future. It sounds like a fun game you'd play at a party. Unfortunately, I only read enough of the book for the concept to be explained, and I didn't actually get to see Phoebe performing with them. (★★☆☆☆)

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Astrid (whose real name is Phoebe) takes on this moniker when she starts a fortune telling business at a local New York club where she rubs elbows with celebrities of the 1980's. Her method of telling fortunes is unique. She has a big box of movie ticket stubs and asks people to pick out three. Business is OK but money is tight as she struggles to find her place in the chaotic city. She attaches herself to a friend named Carmen who comes up missing and she makes it her mission to find her. The book has a unique plot and setting and well worth reading.

The story of the heroic dog team that got desperately needed medicine from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska, during a 1925 diphtheria epidemic. The writing is greatly simplified for beginning readers, but still engages adults with the gripping tale of a relay of dog sleds, nearly disastrous mishaps, a blizzard, and the final 53-mile run that Gunnar and his lead dog Balto accomplish. The story (although not this version) been made into a movie which is great for family viewing.

"En pappa som jobbar jämt och en mamma som verkar smått galen och ständiga flyttar... Beatrice är van vid att börja i nya skolor. Det bästa är att inte synas och inte engagera sig. Men den här gången, sista året på skolan innan college, blir det annorlunda. Anne blir hennes vän direkt och vill ha med Bea i tjejgänget. Men den bleke sura och retade killen i klassen lockar Beatrice mer. Fast hur blir man vän med någon som inte alls vill ha vänner och som aldrig kommit över sin tvillingbrors död. Som tror att brodern finns nånstans. Det gäller bara att hitta honom."

Astrid Sees All from Natalie Standiford is a coming of age novel packed full of nostalgia, interesting characters (not always likeable), and unusual twists.

I am glad I waited to write my opinions for a while because this is one of those books that, for me, became better as I thought about it. Let me use an analogy to explain what I mean, and this will apply to the novel as a whole and to Astrid as a character. You have probably had a friend you liked but at the same time always seemed to be shaking your head about. Maybe what they did seemed foolish or self-centered, maybe just illogical, and you couldn't understand why they did what they did. Then, usually when you're no longer interacting with the person on a regular basis, you begin to understand what was going on for that person. You may still think choices were bad or ill-conceived, but you start to understand why. Maybe something in their past, maybe just being disconnected from their feelings. When you reflect on it, you both understand that person better and feel a bit more empathy for what they were going through. This book, and Astrid herself, is that old acquaintance for me.

I was caught up in the nostalgia of the 80s for most of the book and probably didn't offer enough of myself to understanding Astrid. Though I lived in Manhattan for about two years during the 80s I was never a part of the world in this book, but that world was always visible and around, so this was a fun trip for me. After finishing, I came to understand better how and why Astrid did what she did, and the book ultimately became that much better for me. It also means I will likely reread it in the near future from a different perspective than nostalgia.

While I recommend this book I will say that readers who don't like a lot of tangents (or what appear to be tangents at first) may have a hard time connecting. Many of those loose ends do get tied up eventually, so if you enjoy the flow overall keep reading and trust the story to come to some type of conclusion.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

MY HEAAAAAAART

The Secret Tree by Natalie Standiford is a book about the ups and downs of friendship and the secrets that we all keep inside. Minty is a character I could relate to because she is someone who enjoys being a kid and doesn’t really want things to change. My heart went out to her as she struggled with friendships that were in transition. I especially loved the advice her older sister gives her about middle school and friendships. I had fun trying to figure out who the secrets belonged to and found the detective work done by Raymond and Minty to be fascinating. The beginning of this book started off a little slow for me because I didn’t really know much about roller derby and there are many references in the first twenty pages. I stuck with the book, and I am glad I did! The rest of the book flew by, and I couldn’t wait to see how everything turned out. I recommend this book for kids in third through seventh grade. Kids getting ready for middle school will relate to this book and will connect to the characters. It makes you wonder what secrets the people around you are keeping!

I am absolutely in love with this book!

An intriguing story of friendship and overcoming obstacles, Wonderful story for middle school ages.

I liked this book for several reasons. The first reason is the beautiful illustrations. They pair nicely with the text and use so many bright colors that contrast with the darkness of space. I think they show the imagination of the narrator.

The second reason I liked this book is because of the perspective it is told from. It is told in third person and an unknown narrator is pondering what astronauts dream of and creating possible dreams. Then the perspective shifts and although it is still told in third person, you get to see what the astronauts are really dreaming of.

I think the main message of this story is abut how no matter where you go in life or how far away from home you go you will always be reminiscent of your home and where you came from. You could be the most successful person in the world but you will never forget your home and your roots.

This book is a true story about the sled dog, Balto, who ran for 20 hours, 53 miles through snow to deliver medicine to the sick children of Nome. Because of Balto's heroism he ended up saving many children's lives and has a statue made after him in Central Park in NY.

This book could be good for readers of 2nd-4th grade because it is a very fun story with slightly more complicated wording than a 1st grader might read.

In my classroom, I would use this book to teach about heroes and how going the extra mile to turn in your best work is rarely fun. It's hard but it comes with great rewards (such as learning more, quicker).

This book is a non-fiction story told in a very engaging way. To me, it was much more engaging than a typical informational book.

I dunno.  It just didn't make a whole lot of sense... but part of it made a little more towards the end, once we got past the unreliable narrator aspect... and of course real life doesn't always make sense so Standiford may have been deliberately choosing to give the reader things to think about (deliberately avoiding the sitcoms' crisis/explication/resolution in 22 minutes pattern).   it would have been a good book to discuss in a group, but I've already, after about 3 days, forgotten too much of it.