Review of What Shall I Do sighed Emily?

[ciecheesemeister]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "What Shall I Do sighed Emily?" by Faith p Smith.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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What if you had your heart set on training for a track meet but your odd grandmother came for a visit and worked to sabotage your efforts? This is the dilemma that Emily, the protagonist in What Shall I Do Sighed Emily? is faced with.

What Shall I Do Sighed Emily? is middle-grade fiction written by Faith P. Smith and illustrated by Kalpart. Teenager Emily is focused on passing math and training for a race when her abrasive grandmother, Helen, arrives.

Helen is an eccentric character who, although she has been seriously ill, rides to Emily’s house on a horse. Helen is hostile towards Emily, giving her a hard slap. Helen later attempts to sabotage Emily’s participation in the race she has been training for.

This is an interesting and unusual story. The odd and eccentric characters were the aspects of the story that I liked best. However, I was startled when Helen struck Emily, and Emily’s parents did not come to their daughter’s defense. Emily notices that Helen appears to dislike her and Helen’s actions support this belief. Emily’s parents take Helen’s side, explaining her actions away.

The points of conflict, such as Emily overhearing the doctor saying that Helen’s cancer is in remission although Emily’s mother continues to state that Helen is unwell, make for interesting reading but are not resolved. The story ends on a cliffhanger, which is a valid choice by the author. However, readers who dislike cliffhangers might wish to avoid the story because of it.

Stories written for a juvenile audience that feature abusive adult characters are not new. The Series of Unfortunate Events series by Lemony Snicket is a good example of such literature and many young readers (and adults as well) enjoy these stories. Nonetheless, I found it startling that Helen was allowed to slap Emily with impunity and wondered why Emily’s parents did not at least confront or scold Helen for her inappropriate, antagonistic behavior. This was my least favorite aspect of the story.

I do not believe that the book was professionally edited. Throughout most of the book, Emily, the narrator, refers to her parents as Mom and Dad. Near the end of the book, the narrative switches from sentences such as “What news?” asked Dad and “Honey, Grandma is very sick,” Mom said, to “Yes, they do,” said Herb, and “See you Coach,” said Susan. The parents are referred to as Herb and Susan for several paragraphs until the narrative reverts to calling them Mom and Dad.

The story is primarily told from Emily’s first-person perspective. However, there is a sudden perspective switch with this paragraph.

“Grandma!” I yelled. “Are you okay?” Emily paused. “What shall I do?” I sighed.

A good editor would have caught the aforementioned issues and suggested that the author fix them before publishing the book. I cannot give the book a four-star rating with these issues. Because I do enjoy unusual stories with eccentric characters, I am giving the book three out of four stars. If the author were to fix these discrepancies, the book could rate four stars.

I believe that most young readers would be fine with this story and might enjoy the eccentricity of the characters as I do. More sensitive readers might be upset by Grandma Helen’s abusive behavior towards Emily, and some readers might be frustrated by the abrupt cliffhanger ending to the story.

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What Shall I Do sighed Emily?
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[queen anirah]

I do not know what to think about the violence mentioned in the review. Helen is wrong for doing all that to Emily and I hope she doesn’t succeed with the race sabotage.