Title: Going Going
Author: Naomi Shihab Nye
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Why I Read It: I read the plot summary online and liked the sound of it.

Summary: 16-year-old Florrie works at her family’s restaurant and gets outraged at the chain stores stomping all over the small businesses like hers.

Stopped on Page: 46
Why I Stopped: This book shoves the “issue” down your throat, making it no fun at all to read. I always try to support independent businesses over chains, and even I was annoyed by do-gooder Florrie and her self-righteous rants.

Here, it’s her birthday and she’s announcing her wish:

“Okay, guys, this year my wish is…hey familia, everyone listening? My wish is that none of you will visit or patronize any franchise establishment for the rest of this calendar year, starting today! That equals sixteen weeks, one week for each year of my life. This will be a serious project. We will support independent businesses for all our needs, as much as possible. Okay? Agreed?”

She goes on to quote Ralph Nader to her family. I’m not kidding. Nothing against Ralph Nader, but c’mon. This character is nowhere near realistic.

And on the completely trivial side, this book has too many exclamation points and too much italics for emphasis.

Should I have kept going? Or was I right to stop?

Note: As an aspiring author, I respect the extraordinary amount of effort that goes into writing a book. I did not write this review in order to be unfair or negative about the book. My goal is simply to articulate why the book wasn’t for me.

Related Posts