Review of Kalayla

[Andreea Rata]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Kalayla" by Jeannie Nicholas.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Kalayla, by Jeanie Nicholas is a heart warming novel about two different families, with two different stories, but both broke my heart. This little girl, Kalayla and her mother whose life changes after Kalayla's father death, live in an apartment near an old lady. At first, the girl meets with this lady and talk, but their relationship is bad at first. We can follow the improvement between them, but also between Kalayla and her mother, because it's a bit chaotic. The kid gets close to the old lady, finds in her an unusual comfort and begins to rely more on her than on her mother which has some secrets about the family she lived in.

This book covers more aspects like racistm because Kalayla is bi-racial, abuse from the old laidy's past, sexual abuse and many more. It was so nice to follow how they dealt with all these problems, how peoples can become this close from total strangers.

Positive aspects: as I said, the fact that there are so many problems that our society is dealing today is the best thing I've encountered in this book, it's not superficially written, it is quite the opposite, we can see in detail how this problems affected every character and how they managed to fight back. I also liked a lot how the author gave us the chance to peek in everyone's past, those chapters were the most interesting for me.

Negative aspects: Kalayla annoyed me at first, she was irresponsible, the way she spoke was awful for a eleven years old girl, and the flow of negative emotions that poured out of her the entire book is just not right for a young reader. Another negative point is that I couldn't see much character development on Kalayla, I did really expected that. Her behaviour changed a bit, but not how I hoped.

I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. I couldn't give it more because of the language the kid used in the entire book. Other that that, I like it a lot, because of the plot and unique characters.

I recommend this book to teens and above, because it's eye opening, with an amazing writing style which keeps you captivated, and does not bore you. Even if it seems like a normal situation, it's actually something very sad and beautiful at the same time. I do not recommend this book to people under thirteen years old.

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Kalayla
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