By Lindsay Eagar
4RBooks: 3/6, grades 6-8
Amazon rating: 4.4/5, grade level 5-9
Good Reads: 3.72/5
Common Sense Media: not yet reviewed
371 pages
Synopsis:
Miranda is a successful seventh grade student. She gets great grades and is student council president, the first seventh grade student ever. But Miranda has a secret that she tries to keep from everyone, her mother is a cryptozoologist, someone who studies and hunts for mythical creatures. In particular, Kat, Miranda’s mom, is obsessed with finding Bigfoot.
Miranda used to think it was fun and would join her mother on many of her adventures. Now, as a seventh grader, her mom is a distraction and an embarrassment. Miranda leaves for school early and stay’s late so no one will see their car, “the critter mobile.” Because the trips with her mom take 3-4 days, her grades and class status are in danger because of the absences. She never invites anyone to her house because the one time it did happen, she feels it lost her that friend forever. Worse, she found a stack of overdue bills, including one for the house payment.
Miranda makes a plan to try and make her mom grow up and be more responsible. She will go with her on one more adventure, hoping that for once and all, she will be able to prove to her mother how crazy her pursuit of Bigfoot is, and that everything would be better if only Kat were more normal.
The adventure turns into a learning experience for both Miranda and Kat as they have to rely on each other through a serious of dangerous adventures that may, or may not, include some mythical, magical moments.
Parental Guidance: medium-low
Miranda copes with a wide range of stress: her parent’s divorce and father’s absence, keeping her status as a “perfect” student, student council president, and dealing with her “crazy” mother.
As a coping mechanism to the stress in her life, Miranda pulls out strands of hair from her head.
Miranda and Kat face a number of dangers while in the forest: chased by a “bear,” floating down a river on a “raft of trash,” dehydration, and poison oak.
Kat, Miranda’s mother, believes in many supernatural animals and ideas.
Recommendation:
One would assume this book is mostly about trying to find Bigfoot, but it’s not. The main plot is the relationship between mother and daughter when the roles are seemingly reversed; the mother being more child-like and the daughter trying to be the serious and sane one. This dynamic is covered in great detail, one might say “ad nauseam”, and bogs the story down where it was hard to keep going.
The action of the story, in particular the adventure in the woods, was a decent adventure tale. If the mother/daughter dynamic had been covered more succinctly, it would be easy to recommend this book. The best I can give it is a “meh” rating. Good moments, but tediously slow to get to the finish.
It is definitely more of a middle school novel than elementary based on its length and subject matter. I bought this book at the Seattle Aquarium.
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