Stacked Shelves

I really wanted to like Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff. I liked one of her previous novels, A Tangle of Knots , so much I selected it for my 4 th and 5 th grade book club and it was one of the kids’ favorite books. It also was long-listed for The National Book Award. A Tangle of Knots is a quirky book that requires you to pay attention. The characters’ stories are truly woven around one another and there’s fun climax where all the ends come together. In truth, I’m not sure all my kids got all the subtle hints to the “untangling,” but it didn’t bother them. We had a good discussion (that veered off into lots of tangents) and they enjoyed the story and the characters. So I’m a bit disappointed by Absolutely Almost . In many ways it can be compared to Wonder by R.J. Palacio or Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper. The protagonist is a kid with a problem. (Truth be told, there are many such novels, but that just proves there’s a formula at work here.) Auggie, the hero of Wonder ,