Book Read: April 2012
Review Written: April 23, 2012
Review to be Posted: Immediately
Book Release: April 24, 2012 by Random House Children’s Books
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It’s out tomorrow! Ahh!!!
Zero is an artist. Depending on who you talk to, she has a couple different names. Amanda (according to the school rosters), Amy (according to her mother), and to rest of the world… Zero. Because when everything is added up together, she still equals zero.
Thus begins the artist’s story of coming into her own. It’s a relatively straight forward coming of age story, but don’t take that the wrong way. It has its own charms and quirks.
For instance, at the beginning, Zero is in the middle of a fight with her best/only friend. Why? We don’t find out until quite a ways in, but it’s not expected.
The boytoy is also an interesting guy. Wait, no, I take that back – he’s rather bland. He’s supposed to be a musician with a not-so-great past. His dad was in a band way back that scored a Gold. And then the band fell apart. His mom is off in her own little world.
The story twists the above two personal plot lines with Zero’s art wants. She wants to get into the Chicago Art Institute (which she’s never actually seen before, btw) because her favorite art teacher went there. She got accepted no prob, but got denied a scholarship. So she’s going to the local community college to get somewhere. It’s there that she meets the most annoying art teacher known to man, but Zero grows to like her… in a way.
The story weaves these three storylines together to create the book, which follows Zero’s summer after graduation. Where she starts isn’t anywhere close to where she ends.
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I don’t know. The book was okay, I guess. It wasn’t one of the “Can’t put it down” but it wasn’t a “Need to put it down” either. Somewhere in between, where you want to know what happens to her. One of the most interesting parts of it was the descriptions of Zero’s works. She lives in Phoenix, and Leveen (the author, btw) paints us (haha, get it?) some beautiful scenery with his words. It sounds like an amazing place to see.
It’s worth a rental from the library, or if you have a decent coupon, pick it up. Amazon’s letting you save 30%, and I’d say that it’s worth the $12. Pick it up if you get a chance. :)
3.5/5