Shine

Product Information

The Grabensteins’ writing is warm and humorous. This gentle book offers a wonderful reminder that kindness, generosity, and love far outweigh the importance of money, awards, and prestige.” When a contest centered around excellence is announced at her school, Piper wants to compete so she can have a plaque in the display case (next to her mom’s). Her dad often reminds her that people are more complex than they seem, and knowing who you are lets your light shine on.

SHINE! is an absolutely beautiful story about deciding who you want to be, kindness, and finding your own path. Piper Milly is the daughter of an aspiring musician who dreams of writing and producing his own musical but teaches middle school choir to make ends meet. After his a capella group wins a big competition, he is offered a newly vacated job at the fancy private school, Chumley Prep. As part of the deal, he gets free tuition for Piper, which he eagerly accepts. I love Jodi Picoult for writing about topics that matter, issues that need to be focused on, and Shine was just what I always expect from her, a bunch of awesomeness. Die Erzählperspektive hat für mich leider gar nicht gut funktioniert. Ein Großteil der Geschichte wird aus Ruths Sicht, also der einer Drittklässlerin, erzählt. Dann wieder kommen eingeschobene Absätze, die eher wie von außen wirken und für die eigentlich kindliche Perspektive unpassend sind.

Popular Posts

Have you heard of Shine Books? We all know each child is different, with their own strengths and weaknesses, and some find school life difficult. The additional challenges faced by children with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities can leave them at greater risk of difficulties in adapting and learning at school. This can often leave children with SEN feeling (and sadly sometimes being) excluded by their peers. While most children reach milestones and achieve well in literacy skills, children with SEN and disabilities may be left wondering why it is so difficult for them, often questioning their own intelligence. Their peers may also wonder why their friend isn’t able to ‘keep up’, which can lead to misunderstanding, teasing, bullying and even exclusion from social groups and events. Piper only has her father left now that her mother has passed away, and she learns how to make a family out of him. She learns to enjoy his company, because after all, he is her father, and he will always be there for her. I may be incredibly naive, but the entire time I was reading, I just kept asking myself - are kids really this mean? Granted it’s been quite some time since I was in third grade and I don’t have any kids, but still. Are kids this young really spewing such hatred? There’s no way they understand the ramifications of their hurtful comments or even fully grasp what they’re saying, so how exactly are they learning to behave this way? It's scary to think about. This book really did my heart some good, this week. I wasn't sure what to expect, based solely on that cover. But was easily a 5-star ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating from me! It was engaging and everything I hope for from a middle grade novel. What if in the future they had a piece of the moment Ruth was living right now? It made her feel like yesterday and tomorrow weren’t all that far away from each other. What if there was a bigger world than her world- bigger than the boundaries of her imagination.

Shine books introduce us to six character with SEN: Alice, an Aardvark with Autism; Charlie, a Chimpanzee with ADHD; Dylan, a Dog with Dyslexia; Emma, an Ele phant with Epilepsy; Ollie, an Otter with OCD; and Priya, a Panda with Dyspraxia. Ruth was a good student, the best reader in the class and loved astronomy. She was a good listener, a willing friend. They were studying about stars. The reason stars look so small in the night sky is because they’re so far away from us. Priya (A Panda With Dyspraxia) is a lovely character who finds physical skills more challenging than her peers. This book touches on the relief of receiving a diagnosis, something many families and children with SEN will probably relate to, and how parents can find ways to limit the impact of a condition such as dyspraxia on their child’s every day life. Priya is embarrassed and worried by the prospect of her peers reacting to some of the equipment and items put in place to assist her. She is happily reassured by her classmates, who don’t seem to notice some of the items Priya is worried about, and who are very positive about the items they do notice. SHINE is the enticing prequel to Jodi Picoult's new novel SMALL GREAT THINGS that has just moved up on my to-read list. This is a great spin on the classic cabin-in-the-woods story, but it brings clever and fresh ideas to proceedings and gleefully refuses to sit on the fence. Many novels would have hedged their bets; are the creatures real, or is it all in the character’s heads? Make no mistake, very early on in The Watchers the reader realises they are very real and the manner in which they were presented is highly unsettling and slightly reminiscent of Josh Malerman’s Birdbox.Piper herself is an excellent role model for children. She isn’t perfect, but she learns to be compassionate in her own way, and she learns the true value of friendship along her journey to discover her place in the universe. Thank you to the authors and Random House Kids for providing the #bookexpedition group an ARC of Shine! to read and share. Katy Handley, Formby Books. A thrilling and emotive read that weaves myths and superstition into the modern day virtual world of social networking. It ha everything: ghosts, star-crossed romance, jealousy and betrayal. Read the Review What we most love about all the Shine books for SEN is the author’s intrinsic understanding of children’s self confidence, and the clear link between social relationships with peers, and levels of self confidence in children. Friendships are massively important. While a teacher’s (and teaching assistant’s) knowledge and understanding of each SEN provides the necessary foundation for their learning, what is most important to each character’s experience and feelings of self worth revolves around their classmates thoughts and reactions. This is a light, short read for Picoult. Her novellas are often not as controversial or intense as her full length novels. Although you can read a lot of hidden messages into this one, she lets you draw the meaning yourself … or leave it up to Small Great Things to do all that for you.