Book Name : The Thing About Jellyfish.
Author Name: Ali Benjamin.
Genre: Children's & Young Adult.
No of. Pages: 352.
Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books
- ISBN-13: 978-1447291251
- ISBN-10: 1447291255
About the Book:
It's peculiar how no-words can be better than words. How silence can say more than noise, or a person's absence can occupy even more space than their presence did.
Suzy is twelve when her best friend, Franny, drowns one summer at the beach. It takes two days for the news to reach Suzy, and it's not something that she can accept: Franny has always been a strong swimmer, from the day they met in swim class when they were just five. How can someone all of a sudden, just no longer be there?
Suzy realizes that they must have got it wrong: Franny didn't just drown - she was stung by a poisonous jellyfish. This makes a lot more sense to Suzy's logical mind than a random drowning - cause: a jellyfish sting; effect: death.
Suzy's journey to acceptance is quiet - she resolves to either say something important, or say nothing at all. But it's also bursting with bittersweet humour, heart-breaking honesty, big ideas and small details.
The Thing About Jellyfish is an astonishing debut novel from Ali Benjamin, and is perfect for fans of Wonder, Counting By 7s and My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece.
Book Review:
The book is about the struggle of a
twelve year Suzy, who is determined to prove that her best friend Franny wasn’t
drowned but must have been stung by a deadly jellyfish. As Franny was an
excellent swimmer. By the start of her seventh grade starts her quest to prove
that the jellyfish are the reason for the loss of Franny from their lives. But
Suzy has turned into the person she never was, she has become insanely quiet
from the person that she was. This has every person around her worried as they
are unable to make Suzy speak her mind like she always used to. The book
describes all the research that Suzy does when she stumbles upon an article on
a fish tank about how numbers of people are killed every year when stung by a
jellyfish during a Science visit to an aquarium. That’s when Suzy decides that
she will tell everyone what killed Franny through her Science paper
presentation for seventh grade.
The book has so much to offer apart from the
beautiful story that Ali Benjamin woven, the story about how middle school
changes everything for someone like Suzy who loses her best friend Franny way
before she drowned while on a vacation. This book is about discovering the
meaning of care and love when you have no hope left in yourself. It’s about how
your family is always there to support you no matter what stupid decision you
take to prove something you are determined about. This book is about the
beautiful journey of Suzy in the middle school when she has no hopes and no
friends and the transformation that happens further. Ali Benjamin has done a
fabulous job in writing this book, so well researched about such a different
topic like jellyfish. This book kept me engrossed till the end in every part of
it.
Frankly, I was never even bothered to read about jellyfishes and their
various species, Thanks to the author now that even I am engrossed to know more
and more about jellyfishes just like Suzy.
Certainly one of the very finest
children’s book about a knowledgeable topic that should be read for the
knowledge and the story that it has to offer.
Rating: 4/5 *
Note: Thanks to the Publisher for providing the review copy of the book in exchange of an honest review from my side.
