I really enjoyed this book about Angeline, a child genius who has skipped three grades at school. It is very gently drawn, but with really good observations of people - the bit where Angeline's dad is trying so hard to talk to her, but is so wrapped up in trying hard that he misses the point of everything, the bit where Angeline realises that her teacher is insecure and stupid, and will stop being nasty to her if she just gets things wrong. It is at its absolute best when talking about running away - Angeline goes to the aquarium, and forgets her sorrows in the fish.

I didn't really like the Angeline's Dad / Miss Turbone love story, although I can see it makes a neat happy ever after for everyone. And I was surprised it didn't have more of a 'running away doesn't solve things' moral, in this book running away doesn't have any really bad consequences for Angeline. ( )

As an adult, this book is pretty painful. It basically consists of three things: an overwhelming number of bad dad jokes and puns, a lot of repetition, and list upon list of animals. There are some sweet moments and a few deep thoughts, but the negatives outweighed any redeeming qualities for me. I could see how kids would love its goofy nature, but it wasn't really my cup of tea. ( )

A little fantastical, but then if you're a fan of Sachar (and if you're not, you should be) you're ok with that. Lots of humor (and I don't mean just the kids' jokes) but lots of insight and poignancy, too. ( )

Oh my, but SOMEDAY ANGELINE is so adorable. My EL510 student who is hardest to please with the book selections for that class actually finished the whole book before our second class and declared that this book was fun, as compared to all the other books we had read before it (Mary Poppins, Kenny and the Dragon...). I liked the themes we could discuss in this book as well, about youth vs. genius, good/bad parenting, etc. The omniscient third-person narration was strange sometimes, and I didn't like how the adult romance was treated, but all in all, a solid thumbs-up for using this book for EL510. ( )

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