Sally Murphy (1)

Representation: Refugee character
Trigger warnings: Death of parents, refugee experiences

7/10, it was good but not the best verse novel ever since it felt more like what happens when someone presses the Enter key a couple of times on sentences and then calls it, "poetry." That being said I still very much enjoyed this novel even though it was a bit juvenile since it is targeted for middle graders but I think all readers can enjoy this one. The story is very interesting since it focuses on three main characters, Jolene, Amed, and Blake each experienced some sort of struggle or loss in their lives, hence why the book was titled this way. Blake just suffered a broken arm which might have ended his football career forever, forcing him to find a new identity so he became an umpire and developed his character though I do feel bad for him that he stopped playing football. Jolene was slightly worse off than Blake since she has an overbearing mother who wanted her to do hockey even though she does not like it. However in the end she talks to her about that and her mother was satisfied, but not before Jolene loses her father when he went on some sort of overseas military operation to help refugees which was quite sad.

By far the worst off out of the three main characters was Amed, who lost his home and his parents so he only had his aunt and had to learn a new language which felt all too familiar as I've read books that have this storyline in some way, shape or form. These stories tied together at times but most of the time they were three separate stories with three characters living in one place which kind of makes this book more of a collection of short stories rather than one cohesive plot. If you like verse novels this is the book for you.… (meer)

Representation: N/A?
Trigger warnings: Military violence and war themes
Score: Seven points out of ten.
This review can also be found on The StoryGraph.

This was the first book I read in 2023 and after reading another war book last year I was hoping that I would enjoy this when I got it for not much money at all; it was worth reading but I still felt it was a step down from the last book, where do I begin. It starts off slowly with the main character Stan Moore deciding to volunteer for the Australian war effort during WWI but looking back that wasn't the most original book I've seen however I kept on reading to see where this would go. Stan eventually arrives at his designated location called Gallipoli and I have heard of this place before since it's where the soldiers fought which people still honour, that was a nice touch. He meets some other characters whose names I forgot then he fights against the Turks during the year 1915, hence the title and I liked how the entire book is just a bunch of diary entries however they could use some more detail. Stan records his life in the battlefront and sometimes it was quite hard to read due to some scenes, in the end I think he was called off after the battle was done ending this on a high note.… (meer)

Verse novel about three different teenagers at the same school all facing challenges. Blake lives and breathes footy but when he breaks his arm, he can no longer play and only watch from the sidelines. Joelene has a mother who is obsessed with her being able to play hockey for Australia, but Joelene wants to try other things and feels under pressure from her Mum. To give them some perspective we then meet Amed who has been a refugee, has no friends, doesn't speak English very well and longs to play soccer.… (meer)