Hello and welcome to this week’s episode of Readability! I hope everyone is having a great weekend! For this episode, I am doing another review, on one of my battle of the books! Well, I really don’t have a lot to say, so let’s just get straight into the episode!
The Book Review Podcast
The Review
Catching a Storyfish is a poetry novel by the author Janice N. Harrington. It follows Katherine Walker, better known as Keet Keet because she talks so much, a girl who is moving from Alabama to another state and school because her parents believe it’ll be better for them. Better school, better work, and better pay.
Keet Keet doesn’t want to leave everything she loves behind in Alabama and she thinks her family has made a bad choice of moving from there. As the story goes on, we meet Allegra, or Allie-gator, Keet’s new neighbor who can spell anything! At first, the two aren’t fast friends, it does take a bit for them to start hanging out.
At school, Keet’s new classmates start making fun of her southern accent. For example, she pronounces, ‘yellow’ as ‘yella’ and more things that make her feel really bad. When she is at home, she has her grandpa, and her little brother Noah (who she calls nose), who she has a close relationship with and goes fishing with.
It’s not until something really unfortunate happens that brings Keet down even more. In the end, Keet Keet makes tons of friends, starts telling stories as she used to at her old school, writing, and getting used to the new home. This book is really heartwarming and I love the poetic style.
Author Praise
Janice creates clever and fun poems to fill this book with. Along with that, she explains the different styles of poems she uses for the readers to understand and learn more about poetry! Janice is a great author and makes this tale full of emotions.
Basic facts
- 224 pages in this book
- There are 9 chapters, with many sub-chapters in them
- This book did not win an award
- The author of Catching a Storyfish is Janice N. Harrington
- The publishing brand is Wordsong
What’s Your Rating?
If I had to rate this book, I would definitely give it a 4 out of 5. The story is really great and super emotional. The way Janice writes the poems and create this story is really out of the box and different from some book.
That’s what makes Catching a Storyfish stand out so much. The characters had a good amount of growth and really makes this story relatable to kids who move and are forced to leave everything they love, behind. I really enjoyed this book, and I would read it again!
Would I Recommend It?
So, if I had to recommend this book, I wouldn’t have trouble doing so! It’s a very enjoyable story, and I think many of my close friends will enjoy Keet’s story and all the poems in it! I could see why someone wouldn’t like this book as much as I would, probably because of the way the author writes the story or the wording, but nonetheless, I would definitely recommend this!
Highlights
It’s time to get onto my highlights of this book. Warning, I feel I could be talking about way more if I spoiled some things, so be prepared for some spoilers. (And not all highlights are necessarily good)
- When Keet and Allegra finally become friends, it’s really heartwarming to me. Keet has been trying to find a friend in her new town, and now that she’s finally found Allie-Gator as a friend, it’s really nice knowing that.
- A sad part of this book is when Keet’s grandpa has a stroke. The way Janice writes the close relationship Keet has with her Grandpa makes this event 10x more valuable. It’s really sad, and I applaud Janice for making this event in the story super sad.
- Noah and Keet’s brother and sister relationship are really cute and sibling s can relate to what they banter about and what it’s like to have siblings. I myself can relate because I have a little brother.
Character Thoughts
It’s now time for my personal favorite segment of a review, my character thoughts! As we may know, Keet is having a tough time fitting in at her new school and I think because of this flaw of hers, she becomes a more relatable character that many kids can connect to. She starts to grow and be more confident with her new friends and meets some along the way.
Speaking of new friends, Allegra is a new friend of Keet’s and is willing to hang out with someone who is made fun of and is very new to the school. I think Allegra is really kind and unique. And so is Keet! Unlike other stories I’ve reviewed on this podcast, we don’t have any ‘villans’ or ‘hero’ but I think this story had a pretty good plethora of characters.
I don’t have any characters that I didn’t like, maybe John Royale, the kid who made fun of Keet. But my favorite characters have to be grandpa or Noah. Both have fun and cheery attitude that brings a smile to your face. I love those two and I think they’re my favorite!
Thank You For Listening
As always, I hope this episode introduced you to the world of poetry, and more specifically, Catching a Story Fish! Have a great day and I’ll see you next week, here is our official readability ending!