Mrs.Wright's Reviews > Rachel Spinelli Punched Me in the Face

Some parts of this story were clever and charming - and who could resist the title? (I do prefer the yellow jacket cover on mine to the one pictured here, though.)

Some pros:
The main character's mother leaves the family at the beginning of the book and he's dealing with the hurt of that, as is his father. Although a missing parent is often overdone in literature for this age level, I think the treatment here is natural and handled well.

I believed in the community members. I like the idea of books that show all kinds of people who interact with each other - not just the ones who are your age or who happen to live in your house. Sometimes these attempt fall flat - creating eccentric neighbors and so forth, but this one adds a bit of flavour without going too much into detail about the supporting characters.

I like the relationship between Zachary and his father. I also like how music is a tie between them (and also to Teddy) - and the music connection isn't fake: the writing reveals an understanding about musicians.

Some cons:
I wish Rachel were a bit more funny. She's set up to be big bad Rachel, and we learn the reason why, and we have a fair amount of reasons to want to like her, but she's just not as compelling as she needs to be to propel the book. If she had some major talent or ability, or her insults popped a little better, it would give her more edge. There's a little too much telling about how mean she is, so the showing falls short - her fury seems a bit pale.

I'm all about sitting around and thinking about who people are and why they do what they do, and even I think the characters spend an unrealistic amount of time discussing who they are and why they do what they do. Fortunately, it's usually interesting, but it stretches believability a bit for them all to be able to articulate these insights and be willing to share them so regularly.

SLIGHT SPOILER*****
While the romantic feelings between Zachary and Rachel aren't overdone, I don't know that they're necessary to the story. Their friendship would be a meaningful connection by itself. Because of this bit of storyline, though, I'd recommend this more for 5th or 6th grade.