Since the story is character-driven, it develops more slowly and at times feels like nothing is happening and I'm just following along with the daily life of an exchange student. And that is the primary goal of the story to follow allow Lily's growth while spending one year abroad. She had some actions that made me change my opinion of her slightly. After putting aside the rebel teen hormones she is a good girl with her heart in the right place. With time, Lily does change and we get to see that deep down she has a good heart. Instead of taking advantage of the opportunity to see what it's like to live in rural Japan and experience the culture, all she focuses on is the fact she is not in Tokyo. I probably wouldn't like that last-minute change as well. But then that plan went south and she ends up in the middle of nowhere. You side with her because the experience she was promised was in Tokyo.
She is a piece! Having to read through Lily's perspective is a challenge, although I was more interested in "experiencing" Japan through her eyes, so I was able to gloss over some of her attitudes. Obviously for the book to have a plot at all, there needed to be a “things go wrong!” element, but this one just endlessly banged the “don’t be a whiner and take what you’re given” drum to the point where any of the fun of the narrative and what Lily *does* get out of learning to adapt felt entirely beside the point.īefore going in be advised to have lots of patience set aside to deal with the main character Lily. Don’t complain no matter what (and things will inevitably turn out great!) is not how I would ever want my daughter to handle a situation like this.
I really don’t love kids books that send the message that you shouldn’t speak up when you’ve been put in a bad position and should instead just grin and bear it. Sigh.īecause this is fiction, poor Lily, she is who is meant to “make the best of things,” of course finds that her experience (not what she asked for, was promised, or what her parents paid for) was magnificent! In reality, I expect either this gets fixed or she goes home two weeks later.
shrugs its proverbial shoulders, and cheerily suggests a young woman make the best of it. In which an expensive study abroad program for high school students screws up horribly.
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