Written by: Tween Hobo with Alena Smith
# of pages: 230
My Rating: 3/5
Read in May 2014
Summary according to goodreads
A hilarious and irreverent illustrated book based on the popular Twitter feed (@tweenhobo), featuring a young spunky girl who packs up her glitter pens and sneaks out of math class one Monday afternoon to traverse the railroads in search of freedom, adventure, and her own personal obsession: Justin Bieber tickets.
My Thoughts
I received a copy of this book from Simon and Schuster Canada, but that does not influence my opinion of the novel.
I know that this book was based off of a twitter account, but I had never heard of it before being contacted to review this book. The first-person narrator was an eleven year old girl, so that alone should tell you the depth of the story. There were many pop cultural references, including many to Justin Bieber. This got kind of annoying, as did the language although I know it was just part of the character.
I am someone that cannot grasp the difference between my age group and the next, because everything was so different when I was a kid. We did not have twitter or Facebook, and the only time I could use the Internet was at the library at school or the massive desktop my parents had. Reading this book kind of made me feel annoyed because it portrays, at the beginning for sure, a girl that is ignorant of a world away from teen heartthrobs and tumblr.
On a more positive note, there were tweets and drawings, and random other things woven into the story, which were a nice touch. Having more than just text helped create the illusion that you were reading an eleven year olds diary.
In all honesty I am not sure who I would recommend this book to, if I would recommend it at all, but it was just something quick to read. I do not mean to steer anyone off from picking it up, and I would love to hear your thoughts if you do pick it up.
It is so hard for me to comprehend how fifth graders and middle grade kids have twitter, facebook, pinterest, myspace, etc. When I was their age I probably still played with barbies, played out outside, and read. It's crazy how times change. Great review!
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