My Review:
Have you ever read a book that you have such mixed feeling about but you don't stop reading it? You feel like you could stop and wouldn't care or can continue just to find out what happens even if you are not particularly fond of the main character. At one point while reading Anything but Ivy Pocket I was actually wishing I was reading, ANYTHING BUT, Ivy Pocket but for some reason I just didn't stop.
I am all over the place when it comes to this book, I am a big middle grade book reader and I don't know if I would let my kids read this book only because Ivy Pocket is an Idiot, rude and monstrously annoying (ill explain that word in a moment) She is highly full of herself and has no remorse for what comes out of her mouth. Poor thing wasn't given a filter. She made up wild stories and was EXTREMELY gullible. I would have found her adorable in the beginning with her bluntness and a funny expressions she said to people but after 20% of the same ramblings and rude comments about everything and everyone it got under my skin. Honestly a character grows in a book not moves backwards and she got dumber by the page. The other characters in the books were odd, some I liked but all shrouded in mystery which was interesting. Something was going on and you can tell the other characters (thank goodness) had more sense than Ivy Pocket.
Lets get back to monstrously, good word but not over a dozen times in the first 12% and terribly another great word over used. I will admit my vocabulary isn't that large and I tend to reuse words often but when these words are used to express a funny statement it's funny, the first 3 or 4 times, but the over use of the words in this book was killer. (those were just two examples) Yet I did at times find myself laughing I just thought it was a lot and for a 12 year old, it seemed very out of place. I especially found her use of the word dear was out of place, felt like she was more of a grandmother than a little girl and her rudeness was just overwhelming. The child didn't have a nice thing to say about anyone, called them fatso, horrid, ugly and bloated . Again would have been fine if it wasn't every sentence the child made. Even the adults were unfriendly to Ivy, just plain mean.
I was so torn if I liked this book or not, I wanted to love it but I don't think I did, at least not as much as I wanted to. I can take jokes as well as make them all in good fun but I just am not sure the feel of this book was anything but mean. The story was interesting, I will say that, it is what really kept me reading or something kept me reading honestly not sure. I was really torn so 3 stars was a good middle to pick. As much as I didn't like it I think this will be one I will find myself thinking about and talking about for a while. I am not sure I would recommend to younger kids since the things she says could be ok in a book but in social setting not acceptable and I would hate for kids to be walking around called Aunts or Friends Bloated Fatsos thinking it will be funny. Older kids and adults might find this funny or at least an interesting read but I would have to say you need to try it yourself, this was just my observation of what I read and my own opinion. I did like the authors flow of the story and I found it very interesting and at times funny. I just don't know if the humor, regardless of how twisted mine can be, was something I could enjoyed if it wasn't throughout the entire book.