Enjoyment rating: 2 

Quality rating: 3 

 

 

This is a cute story but doesn’t bring a lot to the table. It’s not particularly bad or particularly good. Some readers will connect with it, but it’s fine overall. It’s predictable and the characters aren’t the most developed, but it’s lighthearted and has a good message. 

 

The general message about spreading kindness and thinking about others is fine but not executed in a particularly special or notable way. It’s the kind of thing you’ve heard stories of people doing before, so the concept of the ripple affect and what she learns isn’t unique. 

 

I didn’t think that the multiple POVs worked well. Instead of rounding out the story, it got harder to follow the different characters and what they wanted. I get that the different POVs were supposed to show how the main characters actions affected the people around her, but having them bogged down the story and made it take a long time for anything notable or important to happen. Zella’s growth would have been more apparent and impactful if the book had stuck to her POV instead. It takes a long time for the prank going wrong to happen, and most of the book’s important action happens too quickly at the end instead of being distributed well throughout the book because of those POVs. 

 

That said, I do like the growth that Zella goes through. Part of growing up is learning to take responsibility and recognizing how what you do and say influences other people. Unfortunately, she also comes across as stupid and selfish for the majority of the book, and it’s hard to put past her actions just because of a grand conclusion. It is nice to have a prankster character dealing with big issues of growing up, friends’ interests changing and tough life concepts like a grandfather with dementia. 

 

The execution of the message is a little too trite for the audience. Kids are smart, and this book seems to try to be deep and meaningful (particularly with its inclusions of things like dementia and divorce), but it also dumbs a lot of things down. The story itself probably would have worked better as a shorter book for younger readers with less attempts to hammer in the message. 

 

Overall, the end message is sweet about how to make the world a better place and it’s cute at times, but the book overall isn’t likely to leave much of a ripple effect on readers or the world. It ends with warm, fuzzy feelings and may inspire readers to try their own pay it forward type efforts to make their communities a better place.