Author (Last name first): Rivers, Karen
Title of the Book: The Encyclopedia of Me
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Date of Publication: 2012 ISBN# 978-0-545-31028-4
Price: $16.99 Grade Level: M/J Number of Pages: 247
VOYA Rating: 3Q 3P

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Tink (Isadora Aaron-Martin) is the bi-racial main character. Her dad is black, from Britain, and her mom is a “white redhead”. If people ask Tink what she is, she replies “I’m a human being.” The beginning of this book sets the details up about all the characters in an encyclopedia format. Tink has been getting in a lot of trouble at home and is constantly grounded, but a lot of that is her parents trying to cope with a severely autistic son. Think also has to deal with a difficult brother, which is hard on everyone. Freddie Blue is Tink’s best friend and they grow apart in the book. Kai is a new boy next door with blue hair that Tink get’s a crush on. Tink tries to be strong in her family, she is the Peacemaker a lot of the time, but she is tired of people not paying attention to her. The Tink and Kai relationship grows throughout the book, while all the characters navigate the drama of high school.

It took me a while to get through this book. I thought the encyclopedia format was interesting and I appreciate what the author was trying to do, but there was a lot of skipping around and a lot of internal dialogue. Which is to be expected because Tink was writing the book about her life while she was grounded. I tried to keep up on the footnotes, but sometimes it was a bit of a distraction. I think some of the slang will soon date the book. I don’t really have anything bad to say about it. Perhaps it is more suited for middle school? I do think counselors could use this book with students who are dealing with autism. The descriptions in the book were very real and frank. It has a good message about not striving to just be the popular girl, but pursuing friends and hobbies that make you unique and happy. It could be used as a middle school book club book. ( )

Summary: Tink Aaron-Martin is grounded after an adventure with her best friend Freddie Blue Anderson. To make the time pass, she decides to write an encyclopedia of her life from "Aa" (a kind of lava--okay, she cribbed that from the real encyclopedia) to "Zoo" (she's never been to one, but her brothers belong there).

Personal- this book was very funny, I think it would be fun for more older elementary students. It definitely makes me want to read an encyclopedia

Extension: 1. Could start an Encyclopedia as class activity and post up in class room
2. class can group up and have a letter assigned to them and make it a scavenger hunt to find object that start with the letter

Tink is growing up, stuck when we meet her in that horrible place between a young girl and a young woman. We see her transition gradually, step by step, which is often how that transition happens. The beginning feels younger than the end, which is the way it should be. There's a family that is imperfect (including parents who disagree on how to raise Tink's brother who is on the spectrum [and that's rarely portrayed]) and a cute boy next door. A great, clean recommendation for those younger kids who are reading a little higher too. ( )

This and other reviews can be found on Reading Between Classes

Cover Impressions: The cover is cute and would definitely appeal to a teen audience. The imagery charmingly hints at a kiss and the colors are eye-catching.

The Gist: Tink Aaron-Martin is not your average teenager. After being grounded (again) she forgoes the moping and whining typical of her age and instead escapes with her laptop up her favorite tree and proceeds to write an encyclopedia of her life.

Review: This novel has a very unique style. The narrative is woven throughout encyclopedia entries like: MegaMall, Haywire and Virgorama. Some of the entries serve only as amusing interludes while others move the plot forward. This effect took a little getting used to, and I must admit that as the novel went on, I found the frequent footnotes less endearing and more distracting.

The story itself has some fantastic bones. Tink is a special young girl with a not so nice best friend, two brothers, one who is autistic and one who is just annoying and parents who seem to forget that she exists. However, by the end of the story there isn't a great deal of progression. We see some growth in the family, and Tink *sort of* lets go of her friendship with Freddie Blue but I don't really feel that Tink changed as a person or that she accomplished anything other than winning "The Boyfriend Race".

Though I had some problems with the narrative, I do feel that this novel would appeal to a middle grade audience. I can see a number of my students enjoying the alternative writing style and sharing Tink's quirky sense of humor.

Teaching/Parental Notes:

Age: 9-12
Gender: Female
Sex: Kissing
Violence: Accident involving a car
Inappropriate Language: None
Substance Use/Abuse: None ( )

I was impressed at how smoothly Ms. Rivers was able to move the story along using the format of an encyclopedia. I expected that by followig the alphabet the story would be choppy and disjoineted, but it was actually a very clever way of telling the story. My only complaint was the use of the teen "jargon". Working with students around that age , I have never heard any of them use words like "glam" "malg" hilar" "geni" etc... I think that using those types of expressions made Tink seem immature and I would have liked to see her grow out of the habit by the end of the story. ( )