⋙ Libro Like Mandarin Kirsten Hubbard Books

Like Mandarin Kirsten Hubbard Books

Download As PDF : Like Mandarin Kirsten Hubbard Books

Like Mandarin Kirsten Hubbard Books

On the surface Grace Carpenter and Mandarin Ramey are nothing alike. Grace is a failed beauty queen; she has a stage mother focused on pageants, who has turned her attention to Grace's little sister. Grace is good in school and has never been kissed. In contrast, Mandarin has a foul mouth, a bad track record with female friends, and plenty of boyfriends. When Mandarin isn't faring well with her grades, she requests Grace's help, and in turn Grace assists her as part of a service project for school.

Grace is fascinated by Mandarin, who stands out in all the wrong ways in Washokey, Wyoming. Mandarin is exotic and wild, like a jungle animal. When Mandarin insists that they have something in common--their desire to leave their small town for the ocean and big cities--the two strike up a friendship and Grace becomes her follower. But Mandarin, in her self-destructiveness, might be leading her to the wrong path.

I love Hubbard's style. The prose is beautiful and the characters came across as so real that I'm still thinking about them. And the sense of teenage longing is intense. I could feel how passionately Grace and Mandarin wanted to experience life outside Washokey and the sadness they felt for their respective broken families. This debut novel struck a chord with me, and I look forward to reading more from the author.


Tags : Amazon.com: Like Mandarin (9780385739351): Kirsten Hubbard: Books,Kirsten Hubbard,Like Mandarin,Delacorte Books for Young Readers,0385739354,Social Themes - Friendship,Social Themes - New Experience,Social Themes - Peer Pressure,Best friends;Fiction.,Friendship;Fiction.,Sisters;Fiction.,Best friends,Children's Books - Young Adult Fiction,Children: Young Adult (Gr. 10-12),Fiction,Friendship,JUVENILE,Juvenile Fiction,Juvenile Fiction Social Issues Friendship,Juvenile Fiction Social Issues New Experience,Juvenile Fiction Social Issues Peer Pressure,Juvenile Grades 10-12 Ages 15+,Sisters,Social Issues - Friendship,Social Issues - New Experience,Social Issues - Peer Pressure,TEEN'S FICTION - GENERAL,United States,Wyoming,YOUNG ADULT FICTION,YOUNG ADULT FICTION Social Themes Friendship,YOUNG ADULT FICTION Social Themes New Experience,YOUNG ADULT FICTION Social Themes Peer Pressure

Like Mandarin Kirsten Hubbard Books Reviews

The writing in this book just did not grab me. Everything seemed choppy and simplistic and the story it self did not really make sense to me either- When reading about Mandarin's life I just could not believe that anyone would look at her life longingly. I could understand wanting to reach out and help her, but wanting to be her-no!
What struck me about this book was one Hubbard nails the friendship dynamic that often occurs between teenage girls. And two the setting plays a role in the plot in subtle but significant ways.
I appreciate her imagery and use of other literary devices. Overall an enjoyable read.
I won't spend a lot of time writing a review because you need to be reading this book instead! It was fantastic and I can't wait for more from Kristen Hubbard. I read this quickly because it was so good.
very impressive first book from the author. keeps the reader engaged and looking forward to reading what will happen time and time again. excellent at capturing the world of the young adult, and highly recommended to all.
I'm astonished that this is Kirsten's debut. I'm writing a YA novel myself, and when I read something as wonderful as "Like Mandarin," it makes me want to throw my hands in the air and give up! I wish I had as much raw talent with language and description as she does! I especially loved this story because it's unique to the genre--so many YA books are centralized on romance and girls swooning over guys--very few focus on intense friendships like this. It was a nice change. Two thumbs way up! I can't wait to read her next book!
Also appears on The Screaming Nitpicker.

I can't tell you how many times I have gone into a bookstore hoping to see Like Mandarin on the shelves and left the store feeling disappointed that it wasn't. For one reason or another, it seems Barnes & Noble--and possibly Books-A-Million too because I have never seen her novels there--won't stock her books. After reading Like Mandarin and Hubbard's second novel Wanderlove, I think that's a shame. This novel cements Hubbard as one of my favorite contemporary YA authors and I feel her books deserve to be more widely read.

Hubbard's descriptions of Washokey, Wyoming and its residents are deeply atmospheric and ring true. Though I live in a place that does not resemble Washokey in any way, I felt like I was there every time I started reading again. When I went outside during a break from my reading marathon of this novel, I chose to imagine the winds outside were wildwinds and not winds from the aftermath of a tropical storm. Grace's narrative voice is lovely and clear with few to no tripping points to jerk me out of the story.

Grace and Mandarin are both strongly characterized are act as the driving force of the narrative. Mandarin's naive yet cynical ways when the majority of the town wrongfully labels her a slut make her a standout character, but she never takes over the book because Grace is just as well-drawn. She has her childlike dreams of escaping too and a distant relationship with her mother that constantly hurts her, but she chooses to blend in to hide her pain where Mandarin acts out so she can mask her pain. Their friendship and its constantly shifting nature fascinated me until I'd turned the last page.

It's kind of funny how Grace was already like Mandarin before she started trying to emulate her. She just didn't see how similar they were until she came closer and saw what no one else saw in Mandarin.

But the novel wasn't just about Grace and Mandarin becoming friends, painting the town red, and eventually coming to their respective realizations about life. Like Mandarin was also about two girls with broken families who want to put the pieces back together but have no idea how. Grace's mother seems like a horrible person at first, largely neglecting one daughter to shower all her attention on the other, but she is no cardboard character either. She is far from being the best person, but where the novel leaves Grace's mother, younger sister Taffeta, and Grace herself shows there is hope for their family to come back together.

It's difficult to find words to describe this book. I wanted to bang my head on the keyboard more than a few times while typing this up and as soon as I thought of something I wanted to say, a wildwind blew through my head and took the thought away. This is actually the same problem I had with the author's other novel Wanderlove, which I really liked but never wrote a review for because I didn't know what to say. I can't say there are any authors whose books impress me so much that they tend to leave me speechless.

About a year ago, Hubbard herself made a blog post about the difficulties of being a midlist author, how chain bookstores like Barnes & Noble wouldn't stock her books, and how she was afraid to speak out about it. That post is not only one I highly respect her for, but it's the post that put her books on my to-read list. Those books put her on my to-buy list for any books she may publish in the future.
I had high hopes for this book, and I really wanted to like it, but I just really didn't. I think Kirsten Hubbard writes beautiful prose, but this story felt much too mature for a 14-year-old girl to be telling it. The voice felt more like an adult reflecting back on her younger years. Mandarin's character was flawed and true, which I liked, and Grace's admiration of Mandarin was genuine, as many younger girls look up to the older rebellious ones. I think the voice and overly-descriptive paragraphs were what ruined this for me. Most people love this book, it seems, so I'm definitely in the minority.
On the surface Grace Carpenter and Mandarin Ramey are nothing alike. Grace is a failed beauty queen; she has a stage mother focused on pageants, who has turned her attention to Grace's little sister. Grace is good in school and has never been kissed. In contrast, Mandarin has a foul mouth, a bad track record with female friends, and plenty of boyfriends. When Mandarin isn't faring well with her grades, she requests Grace's help, and in turn Grace assists her as part of a service project for school.

Grace is fascinated by Mandarin, who stands out in all the wrong ways in Washokey, Wyoming. Mandarin is exotic and wild, like a jungle animal. When Mandarin insists that they have something in common--their desire to leave their small town for the ocean and big cities--the two strike up a friendship and Grace becomes her follower. But Mandarin, in her self-destructiveness, might be leading her to the wrong path.

I love Hubbard's style. The prose is beautiful and the characters came across as so real that I'm still thinking about them. And the sense of teenage longing is intense. I could feel how passionately Grace and Mandarin wanted to experience life outside Washokey and the sadness they felt for their respective broken families. This debut novel struck a chord with me, and I look forward to reading more from the author.