Books Direct

Gianna is a curious fourth grader who always wants to know about everything. So, when the new after-school History Club starts up, Gianna is the first to join, along with the class know-it-all, Matthew. With the help of her History Club teacher and the power of the Internet, Gianna makes it her mission to find out about her family's heritage.

This is a short book with cute illustrations at the beginning of each chapter to help us visualize the characters. Using Gianna as the narrator, the author adopts a great conversational tone which keeps the story flowing nicely. Unfortunately, while extremely well-written, this is merely a vignette; the story is nowhere near complete and will leave the kids unsatisfied and wondering what happens next. I can understand the author wishing to create a series around the character of Gianna, but each book should comprise a complete story, not a mere fragment. In addition, Gianna's Mamá (her mother) uses a bit of Spanish in her speech, and it would be helpful to have a glossary at the end of the book.

A promising start to the series.

I received this book in return for an honest review.

Full blog post: http://booksdirectonline.blogspot.com/2015/04/gianna-the-great-by-becky-villareal.html