Vivid detail, memorable characters, and a thrilling adventure make FREAKS a book worthy of a space on my "favorites" shelf.
Each main character has a portrait done, and middle grade readers will love comparing the pictures with the characters they've built in their minds. I also thoroughly enjoyed the illustrations at the back of the book. I learned a lot about that time period both from the story itself and from author's additional notes at the back of the book. I could always see the story playing out in my mind as if I was watching a movie. Vivid sensory details bring Victorian London to life.
Often, their efforts fail or increase the danger to themselves, and I found the story gripping because I wanted them to succeed, but I wasn't sure they could. Even though Sheba and her friends are determined to figure out what/who is stealing children along the riverbank, they are barely up to the task. The themes of courage, loyalty, and resourcefulness and woven all throughout the novel. Sheba's loneliness and shame at the beginning of the novel gradually transform into confidence and loyalty to her new found family of fellow freaks. In FREAKS, Sheba and her friends are the kind of people who can only survive in Victorian London by being part of a sideshow-the kind of show where others pay money to come stare at those who are incredibly different from the average human.
The characters make this novel stand out in a sea of novels where the characters are pretty, accomplished, and fully equipped to stand up to adults with nasty agendas. This book is impossible to put down for two reasons-we care about the main characters, and we aren't at all sure they can save the day. I really enjoyed the page-turning suspense. Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Benin, Bermuda, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Comoros, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Ecuador, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Gabon Republic, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Greenland, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Macau, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, South Africa, Suriname, Swaziland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Vietnam, Virgin Islands (U.S.FREAKS is a fast-paced adventure that never loses the heart of its very unusual characters.
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