 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. |
 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
Tangerine
- By Edward Bloor
- Genre: Coming of Age
Common Sense Media says
A complex tale about teens, family relationships.
Parents say
QUALITY
Kids say
QUALITY
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that the contrasting brothers may hit a little too close to home for some families.
What's the story?
Paul Fisher can see things his parents can't, like how evil his older brother, Erik the football star, really is. He can see this even though he has been legally blind since an early-childhood accident he can't remember.
Now his family has moved to the bizarre town of Tangerine, where muck fires burn forever, lightning strikes at the same time each day, and half the school disappears into a sinkhole one afternoon. Paul's memories are starting to return--memories that lead to shocking revelations about his family. Meanwhile, he plays on the soccer team with the toughest Latino kids at school, kids who are beginning to accept him as one of their own.
Is it any good?
This complex, multilayered novel is impossible to synopsize briefly -- there's just too much going on, and every bit of it is engrossing and powerful. The author has a lot to say on a wide variety of subjects: race relations, child rearing, sports, class conflict, and more, but he does so in a book that is at once exciting, moving, strikingly original, and thought-provoking. Above all, TANGERINE is about the revelations that adolescents experience as they begin to step back and see their families through more detached eyes.
One 14-year-old said that the dizzying number of subplots could have been streamlined, for her taste, and that "sections in the first half of the book were slow." But this tale is richer and more inventive than most young-adult novels, so these seem like minor complaints. Bloor's first novel is a tour-de-force melding of the physical, intellectual, and emotional in a rich, resonant story.
What families can talk about
Families can talk about why Paul's parents idolize his football-star older brother but fail to see his shortcomings.
Why does Erik behave the way that he does?
What was your reaction when
Paul finally found out what caused him to lose part of his sight?Do
you see Paul as a hero?How did each of the main characters change over
the course of the book?
- Show:
- All members
- Parents
- Teens & kids
AGE
Disturbing and for much older childeren
This book has really awful things happening in it. Some very disturbing stuff happens for the younger student. (Two people die ... one struck by lightening and the other accidently murdered) (the main character's brother is very insensitive about death and mock the deseased as well as sprays paint in the main character's eyes and almost blinds him at the age of 5) I really don't recomend it but if you were to read it, it would be for a much more mature group.
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AGE
Was fun
This book can be kinda boring at first but once u actually start to read into it is is a amazing book. It could have been better but it had a suspensful feel to it.
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AGE
perfect for kids 13 and up
I loved this book it was amazing, everybody should read it!
it does become violent towards the end. Not very many bad words but they do say piss. hell, and ass. only once.
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AGE
It was an amazing book!
I personally think that this was a really good book. We had to read it over the summer for school and I thought I was going to hate it. I'm not even into soccer or anything that they talked about, and I still couldn't wait until I finished it so I could figure out all of the mysteries.
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AGE
Highly recommended
This book is phenomenal. It is thought-provoking and inspirational. It serves as a great 'dress rehearsal' for tweens and teens as they will face many of these issues during their lives [athletes and their behavior, friendship, family secrets, bullying, assertiveness]. I am considering using this as a book for 7th graders to read, experience, and discuss in September. [I needed to have patience to get past the first 30 pages or so. After that, I stayed up all night reading it!]
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AGE
Not good for younger children to read
i think this book isnt meant for kids age 9-16 teen i've been reading it with my 11 year old because school has him reading it it isnt good for his age and if i would of know before hand i would of not let him even start reading this book not meant for a kids his age readit 1st as a parent and then deside if it ok for a younger kids to read i as a mother think not for mine
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AGE
not for teens
umm it was okay but its not a book you wouldnt want to put down its like once you stop reading you dont want to return to it.
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| Author: | Edward Bloor |
| Book type: | Fiction |
| Genre: | Coming of Age |
| Publisher: | Scholastic Inc. |
| Publication date: | January 1, 1997 |
| Number of pages: | 294 |
| Paperback price: | $4.99 |
| Publisher's recommended age(s): | 12 - 14 |
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