Cover of Bloomability
“Bloomability” by Sharon Creech
Genre: Middle Grade Fiction, Contemporary
Source: Library Book Sale
Summary from Goodreads:
Set in the breathtaking landscape of Lugano, Switzerland, Bloomability is Sharon Creech at her very best.When 13-year-old Dinnie Doone is plucked out of her troubled life by her aunt and uncle and whisked away to an international school in Switzerland, her world is turned upside down. Suddenly surrounded by different cultures, languages, and beliefs, Dinnie struggles to holdon to her past life. Gradually, through friendships and experiences she could have nowhere else, she learns to trust herself and discovers the beautiful “bloomabilities” her new life has to offer.
This is the 3rd Sharon Creech book I’ve read and I’m really loving her style. I have no idea why I never read her books growing up. I would have loved them!
All the books I’ve read by her are all relatively different but they all have the same style and feeling to them. I had a classmate mention that before about her style but never understood what she meant. It’s hard to describe but the closest thing I can think of is it’s a bit bubbly? Basically I feel I like I could read a bit of a book and recognize her style relatively quickly.
Dinnie and I had nothing in common really but I really felt connected to her. I felt her pain of having a less than ideal family and having to be taken away from them. I felt the awkwardness of moving to a new country with family you don’t really know to go to a new school. Creech did a fantastic job of getting me to feel connected to her. It’s fairly rare for me to feel connected to characters in children’s/middle grade books.
As if Harry Potter didn’t make me want to go to a boarding school, this book finished the job. The characters for the most part were sweet and loveable. I liked the mix of kids from different countries.
I was a bit annoyed that the book didn’t really have any closure. There was no giant overarching story line; it was more of a coming of age book. All of a sudden, it’s graduation day so the story is over.
Rating 4/5
Highly enjoyable.
The Cheap Reader 
One of my favorite books! Yay!
If you’d like another coming of age novel to read, but more YA than MG, Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen is really good. I think I read it around the same time that I read Bloomability, so the two are always locked together in my mind. KTM deals with a lot of the same issues in Bloomability, although it’s not set in an awesome boarding school. 😛
Ooooh thanks for the suggestion. If I could ever find the time, I’d love to read more Sarah Dessen.
Aw, Bloomability! I was just rereading that! It’s such a dear of a book even though, as you say, it’s a coming of age book more than a plot book.