A book review

The Melody Carlson blog tour is from August 20-24th, and I am on board.



I was given a copy of Melody's book Mexico, which is the third book in her Notes from a Spinning Planet series. This series follows a young 19-year-old girl named Maddie through her adventures with her Aunt Sid, who is a reporter.
In the book Mexico, Maddie and Aunt Sid have many minor and major things happen to them, or end up witnessing them, anything that can go wrong, does. A running theme in the book is alcholism, but it is mixed with adventure and friendships and some other lessons. Maddie observes a new friend in her life being destroyed by alcholism. What can she do to help? She does seek advice from adults, which is refreshing. This book is written from a Christian point of view, but I'm torn on whether she should have added more spirituality to it, or if that was just enough for a non-Christian to not be turned off by the book. Maddie does things realistically they way a teen would handle things, not how we want Christians to handle things. I also have not decided if I will let my teen daughter read the book. I do want my daughter to learn some of the points brought up in this book, like being aware of your surroundings and taking heed of that voice that tells you that something is not right, but I don't want her having to see these tough topics yet, either. Over all, it was a pretty good book.

About Melody
Melody Carlson is the winner of the RITA Award and the Gold Medallion and has published over ninety books for adults, children, and teens, including Finding Alice, Crystal Lies, and the Diary of a Teenage Girl series. Carlson is the mother of two grown sons and lives in a "cabin in the words" near the Cascade Mountains in central Oregon with her husband and a chocolate lab retriever. A full-time writer and part-time gardener, biker, skier, and hiker, Carlson can be found on the Internet at http://www.melodycarlson.com/.


Don't forget about my Blogaversary Give-away!