E-book
This journal belongs to Ratchet
Record details
- ISBN: 9781402281082
- ISBN: 1402281080
- ISBN: 9781402281075
- ISBN: 1402281072
- ISBN: 1299649432
- ISBN: 9781299649439
- ISBN: 9781402281068
- ISBN: 1402281064
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Physical Description:
electronic resource
remote
1 online resource : illustrations - Publisher: Naperville, Illinois : Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, ©2013.
Content descriptions
| Source of Description Note: | Print version record. |
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| Genre: | Electronic books. Fiction. Juvenile works. |
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Electronic resources
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2013 May #1
Rachel "Ratchet" Vance is an 11-year-old girl, homeschooled by her widowed, activist father. Ratchet is embarrassed by her father's often confrontational environmentalism, the fact that she knows more about fixing cars than creating a wardrobe, and that they move each year from one fixer-upper to the next. Desperate to lay down roots, make friends, and simply live a normal life, Ratchet hopes to discover her own identity by learning more about her mother and ultimately changing herself for the better. The book's journal format, which shows Ratchet writing in various styles as she completes her language arts assignments, allows debut author Cavanaugh to cover a lot of ground thematically. Ratchet is a thoroughly relatable character whose wish for normalcy will strike a chord with readers. She is an honest narrator, relying on the secrecy of her journal (she has no worries that her father will read it, despite it being homework) to reveal her fears, doubts, and eventual hope for her "weird, wonderful life with Dad." Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews. - Horn Book Guide Reviews : Horn Book Guide Reviews 2013 Fall
In journal entries and poems, eleven-year-old Ratchet (Rachel) expresses her exasperation with her outspoken activist dad; her desire to know more about her deceased mother; and her desperate need for friends. The clichi of the friendless, isolated homeschooler will annoy actual homeschooled readers, but others will be drawn to Ratchet's plight and her eventual understanding of her dad's great traits. - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2013 March #2
An 11-year-old home-schooled girl who longs to live like everyone else learns that her strange life with her father may be weird, but it's also wonderful. Ratchet, whose real name is Rachel, lives with her father, a "crazy environmentalist," who believes that he has a God-given mission to save the Earth. In consequence, Ratchet, who lost her mom when she was 5, wears thrift-shop clothing and helps her father repair cars in their driveway. This makes her both an able mechanic and a magnet for the derision of the neighborhood kids. Ratchet longs to go to school, to buy cute clothing and, most significantly, to make a friend. In a book that is full of surprises, it turns out that assisting her protest-junkie father in his court-ordered community service as a go-cartâbuilding instructor is the catalyst she needs. This is how she will find female helpers and role models, make a friend and even save a little piece of the world. The story has a gimmick; it consists entirely of entries in the language-arts notebook Ratchet uses to record her home-school assignments. At first it seems artificial, with observations that are too on-the-nose. But as the novel's unexpectedly multifaceted plot comes together, it becomes increasingly compelling, suspenseful and moving. Triumphant enough to make readers cheer; touching enough to make them cry. (Fiction. 9-13) Copyright Kirkus 2013 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved. - Library Media Connection : Library Media Connection Reviews 2013 August/September
Eleven-year-old Rachel, known as Ratchet, is an oddity. She is homeschooled by an eccentric father who is vocal about saving the Earth and who moves them yearly as he restores houses. Ratchet finds it hard to find friends, but this is the year it all changes as Ratchet's father fights to save the local park. He takes her along to his court-required community service of teaching a group of boys to build go-carts. Ratchet finds a friend and the truth about her late mother, all while helping her father. Girls who do not fit in or who move often will find a piece of themselves in Ratchet's story. Told in the form of a homeschool language arts journaling project, there is no sense of chapters, but rather individual poems, letters, narratives, etc. Language arts courses will benefit from this book, finding examples of writing that students can exemplify. Sara Rofofsky Marcus, Contributing Faculty, Walden University, Minneapolis, Minnesota. RECOMMENDED Copyright 2012 Linworth Publishing, Inc. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2013 March #2
Eleven-year-old Ratchet records her observations, complaints ("Everything in my life is old and recycled"), worries, and goals ("To be a girl who fits inâhopefully one with a friend") in a series of writing exercises for her language arts "class" (she's homeschooled by her single father) in Cavanaugh's debut novel. But fitting in is difficult for a girl nicknamed after a mechanic's tool, who doesn't have a mother, doesn't attend a "real" school, and spends her days helping her "crazy environmentalist" father fix cars. Worse, her father's outspoken political views have won him the wrong kind of publicity around town, and his battle to save Moss Tree Park from becoming a strip mall looks like a lost cause. Cavanaugh uses bold, often humorous first-person narration to capture the essence of an unconventional heroine struggling to figure out who she is supposed to be. Ratchet's journalâwritten on lined paper and filled with a medley of lists, poems, stories, essays, and doodlesâoffers an enticing blend of strong social views, family secrets, and deeply felt emotions. Ages 9âup. Agent: Holly Root, Waxman Leavell Literary Agency. (Apr.)
[Page ]. Copyright 2013 PWxyz LLC
