Greta Grace
A Greta Grace Gibson story about bullying and self-esteem
by Joanna Quinn
Pub Date 21 Sep 2021
Emerald Lake Books, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Titles
Children's Fiction | Middle Grade | Self-Help



I am reviewing a copy of Greta Grace: A Greta Grace story about bullying and self-esteem through Emerald Lake Books, Independent Book Publishers Association and Netgalley:




There is something worse than being invisible, that is being noticed by the school bully.



Greta Grace likes her life, she isn’t popular, in fact she often feels invisible but she gets good grades and stays out of trouble.



Her best friend is Samantha as well as an grandmotherly neighbor who is never too busy for a chat. Her mom can be a bit overprotective, but Greta Grace doesn’t blame her. Being a single parent probably isn’t the easiest job in the world.



After a longtime crush finally starts to notice her Greta Grace thinks her life might be perfect.


But when the merciless school bully takes aim at Greta Grace, her carefree existence suddenly ends.



Who ever knew that school could be so hard?



I give Greta Grace: A Greta Grace Gibson story about bullying and self-esteem five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

I´m not sure as to how many stars this book actually deserves. My teenage daughter liked it, but not a lot. She said it´s "relatable". So it´s good. Simple language and short sentences make it easy read. Too easy if the book´s target are teenagers.
If I got it right there is a little logical error in the story. SPOILER HERE:
While Greta is visiting Mrs. McGee she accidentally hears a voicemail from a local doctor, who happens to be an oncologist) urging Mrs. McGee to make an appointment. As later Greta´s mom explains there´s a lump and a doctor wants to get it checked. I don´t get it. It´s as if the doctor himself has found the lump and only is calling asking his patient to get the biopsy done. As far as I know things don´t work this way. It´s a patient who discovers something and it´s a patient who goes to doctor asking to get it checked. What´s more, this is within 20% of book or so and then all of a sudden the problem disappears. Magic!

END OF SPOILER

I liked the perfect mother-daughter relationship, that has nothing to do with reality. Idyllic, sweet. Like a huge chocolate fountain in a chocolate factory.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4228042691

I enjoyed this book. As an avid reader who is interested in finding titles for middle school learners, I believe it’s relatable for the targeted audience. I think Greta Grace is an endearing character. I would recommend this book!

This review is based on an ARC of Greta Grace which I received courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher (Emerald Lake Books).


The author is passionate, I'll give her that. You can feel the dedication to the story behind the authors' words. However, as far as being a novel, Greta Grace is a touch dull. The subject is overplayed. I've read this same story a million times before, making Greta Grace nothing more than underwhelming filler fiction.

Greta Grace is a cute story with a solid cast of characters, but it isn't profound.

I didn't read this book but my 11 year old daughter did. She said it was a great read that would appeal to 9 - 13 year olds. While some of the adult reviewers had concerns about Greta's character, my daughter did not share those concerns - and she would certainly not be shy to speak up if she did! She gave the book four stars. Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book. This did not influence my review.

Greta Grace is a novel about a girl standing up to bullying. Greta Grace has been bullied for a while by Casey, though she will not tell anyone about it because she fears that will make the bullying worse. The only person that she tells about this is her elderly neighbor, Mrs. McGee. However, when Mrs. McGee falls and goes into a coma, she has to figure it out herself.

This was a decent novel, a fast read, but it did have some problems. One of the biggest ones was Greta Grace herself. She was supposed to be thirteen but I thought that she sounded more like a nine year old doing things that a thirteen year old would do. It also wasn’t very realistic how not involved the adults were. Any teacher would have noticed the things that Casey did, but no one helped Greta Grace.

Overall, I think that this might be good for young girls under ten.

Greta Grace by Joanna Quinn

I picked this book up because the description was well, relatable. In this book, our main character Greta Grace is being bullied in middle school. We follow her experience coping with that and the recent hospitalisation of a closed one. The positives i found in this books were as follows:
1. Very easy writing. I finished it in one sitting.
2. Sweet relationship with a parent.
3. Realistic reluctance to report the bully to the authorities.

Cons:
1. Female characters villianised constantly.
2. Female characters judged for wearing clothes of their choice.
3. The boyfriend getting off the hook in every situation.
4. The main character being shown as the best person in the whole universe who is actually kinda selfish.
5. weird character development, she just went from hate hate hate to forgivness real quick.

In conclusion, this book was just not for me. I think some kids in catholic schools might like it.