I devoured this book. It is incredibly easy to read and the pages turn faster than you realise.
Sherman has such a great writing style, it will draw you into Sky's world and make you want to know more.

That being said, I struggled to connect with Sky, I realise she is 15 and I am definitely not, but she felt younger than that, which made her friendship drama, her reactions and her actions hard to fully get behing and relate to. I also struggled with Sky, being such a passionate vegan and animal activist, then choosing to eat chicken for popularity. Popularity that you could tell, wouldn't stick with her.

I fully appreciate the heaviness of elements of this book. The loss of a parent, animal activism, family. They are some subjects that get touched on in a soft way, a way that younger readers can understand and process.

The power of speaking up for what you believe in , is a strong message in this book. When Sky finds her voice, her life starts to change and that is a great takeaway for younger readers.

A good, fast read. Perfect for younger readers.

“This tree,” he touches a leaf, “is for Sky’s mum. She was loved greatly. And will be missed terribly. And tonight I honor her for raising a brave daughter who spoke up for the voiceless.” – Oliver from ‘Sky’



Hello people of the internet!!! On today’s ‘Monday Memos’ we’re going to talk about a book called ‘Sky’ by Australian author Ondine Sherman. This book was provided for review by ‘The Author People’, and was released on June 27th, 2017. Ondine Sherman holds a BA in Communications from The University of Technology, Sydney & an MA in Environmental Education from Macquarie University. She is an Ambassador for ‘Action for Dolphins’ & Director of Conservation for ‘This is My Earth (TIME)’. She has been nominated for several awards including: ‘Australia’s top 10 Community Leaders’ by News Limited & Microsoft’ & Cosmopolitan’s ‘Fun, Fearless, Female’ Award in 2012. Ondine previously released a memoir entitled ‘The Miracle of Love’ in 2013, in which she discusses her experiences parenting twin sons with a rare genetic disorder. So now that you know all about Ondine, let’s discuss ‘Sky’. In full disclosure this will be a spoiler free review. Ready? Ok, let’s go!!!



This is a young adult novel about a 16 year old girl named Sky, who moves from Sydney to the countryside with her aunt Paula & uncle Dave after her mother passes away from cancer. Sky feels out of place in her new surroundings due to the fact that she doesn’t have a close relationship with her aunt, doesn’t know anyone else in town, is starting out at a new school close to the end of the school year, and is a passionate vegan. Once at school Sky decides that she wants to be popular so she decides to hide her veganism to accomplish this. Sky’s teacher tells her about a contest that the other kids are participating in with a cash prize of $200, so Sky decides to do her project on Chickens, in hopes that she’ll win the contest so she can buy a fancy dress to wear to her school’s year end gala in order to fit in with her friends. Sky soon adopts a dog named Bella and through a dog training class at a local park Sky begins to connect with an attractive classmate named Oliver (who the lead popular girl Marissa also likes). Sky decides to interview the owner of a local chicken farm for her project, and is horrified when she sees how badly the chickens are treated. This sets Sky on a path that will force her to pick between the new life she is trying to build for herself and the ethics she was raised with.



So now we’ve reached the review part of this post, and I will say that there are some things about this book that I liked and some things that could’ve been better. Firstly I did like the veganism premise of the book because it was interesting and informative. I also really liked Sky’s aunt & uncle because they were kind, loving, and extremely patient with Sky throughout the book. Lastly, Oliver & Lucy (a girl that Sky befriends later in the book), fit into their roles of love interest and eccentric friend well, but the author really does a good job of humanizing mean girl Marissa into a character you can understand. However although ‘Sky’ offers a lot of good things, the most glaring issue with this book lies with the character of Sky herself. Although Sky is young and obviously dealing with her mother’s death, she makes some questionable decisions throughout the book that make her unlikeable & unrelatable . She’s also very cruel to her aunt & uncle, but still expects them to help her and doesn’t apologize to them until the end of the book. Speaking of the end of the book, ‘Sky’ ends with a really sweet scene, but then an epilogue is added at the end that literally ends with the sentences “I stare at the tickets hoping that an answer will magically appear. What should I do?”. This is my least favorite type of open-ended conclusion. Now let me say that I don’t mind open-ended conclusions, but I also don’t like when an author leaves us without a real ending so the possibly of a sequel is higher (an example is the way 13 Reasons Why season 1 ended). It is perfectly possible to have an open-ended conclusion that leaves the foundation for a sequel, but also gives the reader a satisfying ending, and unfortunately ‘Sky’ failed to do this. There are so many other things that could have been improved on in this book (the epilogue alone has a few more issues), but I can’t really discuss that because I don’t want to get into spoilers. Unfortunately I do have to give ‘Sky’ a 1 out of 5 smiley faces because it had so much potential, but could never quite live up to my expectations of it.

I DARE YOU NOT TO CRY. Gorgeous Australian book, has the same feel as Thunderwith and Better For Everyone, which are also in my favourites... Sky is such a lovely main character, the setting is gorgeous, it's short and easy to read all in one go (plus you don't want to put it down!), I just wish it was longer...


spoilers


at least the dastardly ending means there might be a book two? Unless the author is just leaving it up to our imagination what she chooses to do - visit her long-lost dad in Alaska or stay in town with Oliver? Who btw I guessed was WildRider way sooner than she did!

Also I love how the mean girl, Marissa, turned out to have a bit of decency underneath it all - getting her dad to treat his chickens more humanely. But also realistic how they didn't suddenly end up bffs. I'd like to see Jules stand up for herself a bit more in potential book two also...

Nachdem Skys Mutter gestorben ist, zieht Sky zu ihrer Tante, die sie kaum kennt, aufs Land. Dort ist alles neu: ihr Leben wird komplett auf den Kopf gestellt. Neben der allgegenwärtigen Trauer muss sie sich neu zurecht finden. Das fällt ihr besonders in der neuen Schule schwer, denn sie würde dort gerne gemocht und akzeptiert werden. Zu lange war sie schon eine Einzelgängerin.
Doch der Preis dazu zu gehören ist hoch. Bald schon muss sie sich entscheiden, ob sie sich anpassen oder sich treu bleiben will.

Der Roman hat mir unheimlich gut gefallen, war leicht zu leicht und bietet dem Leser jede Menge Anregungen zu vielen Themen. Insgesamt wirkte die Geschichte auf mich jedoch nicht zu überladen, sondern stimmig. Trauer, Neuanfang, Tierschutz, Mobbing... alles war irgendwie dabei und zu einer spannenden Geschichte verwoben, die mich sehr gefangen hat.

Ein tolles Jugendbuch, das ich nur weiterempfehlen kann.

Okay. Here’s the last line of the book’s summary, “Sometimes you have to lose everything to find yourself.”

What do you think this book is going to be about? Self discovery? That’s probably the least touched on subject in the book, and the romance was unexpectedly minimal. The book turned into the author convincing me not to eat meat, and that’s not the message I was expecting to take from this story—nor was it a message well delivered.

I disliked Sky’s character. I really tried to connect to her, but I just didn't. Even understanding what she was going through, she couldn't communicate, she was whiny, she resorted to lying practically every time someone asked her a question, and she knew how awful those girls were and she still wanted to be popular. She went against the one thing she was sure of about herself, to please these girls.

I did like the realistic involvement of the parents/guardians in their kid’s lives. And I enjoyed the Australian setting. But I don’t know. I could write thousands of words explaining all my feelings on every aspect of this book and why they bothered me, but I just don't want to think about it anymore.