Helpful Score: 2
A wonderful book for pre-teen or early teen girls. I am picky about what my daughter reads, but I fell in love with this one too. Quirky characters, funny and sad moments, good message about cliques and about being happy with what you have, all in all a great book!
Reviewed by Cana Rensberger for TeensReadToo.com
A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT by Linda Urban is a funny, refreshing read. Zoe's voice is so authentic it grabbed me right away. The reader will easily relate to Zoe's disappointment in getting almost what she wished for.
Zoe dreams of being a concert pianist, performing in Carnegie Hall, wearing elbow length gloves and a tiara. But when Zoe asks for a piano, she gets a Perfectone D-60 organ. Mix in an I-found-someone-better best friend, a mom who works too much, and a dad who is afraid to leave the house, and you have a delightful, flaky pastry the reader will devour. Top it off with Wheeler, the cute boy on her bus who spends more time at Zoe's house than his own, and it's an irresistible treat.
Debut author Linda Urban has whipped up a delicious, charming read not to be missed. This reader will be pleased if Ms. Urban follows A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT with another book featuring Zoe and Wheeler.
A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT by Linda Urban is a funny, refreshing read. Zoe's voice is so authentic it grabbed me right away. The reader will easily relate to Zoe's disappointment in getting almost what she wished for.
Zoe dreams of being a concert pianist, performing in Carnegie Hall, wearing elbow length gloves and a tiara. But when Zoe asks for a piano, she gets a Perfectone D-60 organ. Mix in an I-found-someone-better best friend, a mom who works too much, and a dad who is afraid to leave the house, and you have a delightful, flaky pastry the reader will devour. Top it off with Wheeler, the cute boy on her bus who spends more time at Zoe's house than his own, and it's an irresistible treat.
Debut author Linda Urban has whipped up a delicious, charming read not to be missed. This reader will be pleased if Ms. Urban follows A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT with another book featuring Zoe and Wheeler.
This book is well written and thoroughly enjoyable, even for adults! I found myself laughing, sympathizing, and reading it out loud to my husband! My child loved it, too. It is a terrific book.
This book is told with the right combination of interesting characters and humor. The chapters are short, sometimes only a page long which makes it easy to read just one more chapter till you're a third of the way through the book in one sitting.
Urban wrote the book through the eyes of Zoe, the heroine of Crooked Kind of Perfect. We read Zoe's thoughts that are written in the present tense in a streamline of consciousness. Zoe, as if talking to herself rather than the reader, imagines being a concert pianist. She can see in her mind the beautiful experience it will be: dressed in a long gown and tiara, the audience dressed up in gowns and tuxedos. She plays perfectly, the audience responds enthusiastically..sigh...
Except that when her dad goes out to buy a piano, he instead returns with the Perfectone D-60. This is an organ that has all sorts of buttons to push so you can play Green Acres with a Rhumba beat or Forever in Blue Jeans to a Salsa one.
We cannot really blame her dad because he, well, he has challenges. Zoe never reveals what his particular problem is, whether he's borderline autistic, has OCD, agoraphobia or what. We only come to understand that he can't leave the house or function independently. This requires that her mother work full time and pretty much all the time.
Through Zoe's eyes we meet her best friend Emily who soon is no longer her best friend because Emily has found a new best friend; her dad's limitations that cause him not only to buy an organ instead of a piano but also 432 rolls of toilet paper (which, on the plus side negates the need to buy any more toilet paper for the next several years), a flamboyant organ teacher, and Wheeler.
Wheeler is an interesting study. He lives with his dad because his mother is gone (we don't know why). He's rather anti-social but when Zoe loses her best friend, Wheeler, in an offhand kind of way, befriends her. In fact he develops the habit of staying at her house after school and develops a chummy relationship with her dad.
The interplay between all the characters, their individual personalities and the overriding plot where Zoe learns how to play and eventually compete on the organ makes for an interesting and enjoyable read.
A Crooked Kind of Perfect will make you laugh but also sympathize with the cruelties of adolescence that nevertheless still allow us to become the independent persons that we're created to be.
What I liked about the book in addition to its humor and storyline was that all the characters were believable and lacked the usual predictable formula.
The only negative is that all the songs that Zoe learns to play on the organ will probably only be appreciated by people my age, thereby reducing the humor element for younger readers. My teenage son didn't know any of the songs. However, that didn't diminish his enjoyment of the book as we read it out loud together.
Urban wrote the book through the eyes of Zoe, the heroine of Crooked Kind of Perfect. We read Zoe's thoughts that are written in the present tense in a streamline of consciousness. Zoe, as if talking to herself rather than the reader, imagines being a concert pianist. She can see in her mind the beautiful experience it will be: dressed in a long gown and tiara, the audience dressed up in gowns and tuxedos. She plays perfectly, the audience responds enthusiastically..sigh...
Except that when her dad goes out to buy a piano, he instead returns with the Perfectone D-60. This is an organ that has all sorts of buttons to push so you can play Green Acres with a Rhumba beat or Forever in Blue Jeans to a Salsa one.
We cannot really blame her dad because he, well, he has challenges. Zoe never reveals what his particular problem is, whether he's borderline autistic, has OCD, agoraphobia or what. We only come to understand that he can't leave the house or function independently. This requires that her mother work full time and pretty much all the time.
Through Zoe's eyes we meet her best friend Emily who soon is no longer her best friend because Emily has found a new best friend; her dad's limitations that cause him not only to buy an organ instead of a piano but also 432 rolls of toilet paper (which, on the plus side negates the need to buy any more toilet paper for the next several years), a flamboyant organ teacher, and Wheeler.
Wheeler is an interesting study. He lives with his dad because his mother is gone (we don't know why). He's rather anti-social but when Zoe loses her best friend, Wheeler, in an offhand kind of way, befriends her. In fact he develops the habit of staying at her house after school and develops a chummy relationship with her dad.
The interplay between all the characters, their individual personalities and the overriding plot where Zoe learns how to play and eventually compete on the organ makes for an interesting and enjoyable read.
A Crooked Kind of Perfect will make you laugh but also sympathize with the cruelties of adolescence that nevertheless still allow us to become the independent persons that we're created to be.
What I liked about the book in addition to its humor and storyline was that all the characters were believable and lacked the usual predictable formula.
The only negative is that all the songs that Zoe learns to play on the organ will probably only be appreciated by people my age, thereby reducing the humor element for younger readers. My teenage son didn't know any of the songs. However, that didn't diminish his enjoyment of the book as we read it out loud together.
Zoe's crooked kind of perfect is an organ. Not a piano. A perfect white piano. Zoe dreams of playing at Carnegie Hall some day but for now she is stuck with an organ competition. Find out how Zoe Elias finds her way through organs and muddles in her life.
~Helen
~Helen
This was a really great book. I enjoyed it as an adult, and I think middle school kids and even high schoolers would enjoy it.
