REVIEW! Leap Day.

Leap Day
Wendy Mass



FROM THE COVER:

Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November.
All the rest have thirty-one,
Though February’s underdone
With twenty-eight – hold the line! –
Leap Day makes it twenty-nine.

What if you could step into everyone else’s shoes for just one day? Soon-to-be-sixteen Josie Taylor was born on Leap Day, February 29, and now it’s her “fourth” birthday. Like every teenager, sometimes she wonders what other people are thinking, but in this unusual novel, YOU get to find out – by leaping into the minds and viewpoints of Josie and everyone around her. Birthday festivities, school play auditions, her driver’s test, a scavenger hunt, and the all-important sweet-sixteen initiation at the lake – these are the things that define Josie Taylor today. But what will define her tomorrow and in the days to come are the people who touch her life at every moment. Full of everyday imaginations and truths, Leap Day will surprise you in more ways than one.

Leap on!


My rating: 4 stars.

MY THOUGHTS:

Surprisingly innovative. Josie’s world and story are explored through merely a day. Ingenious! It turns out there’s much you can learn about characters just by spending time with them over such a short period. And instead of it dragging along, Mass plucks her characters into ridiculously fun, creative situations.

The writing stays true to the character. Josie’s sixteen. She sounds sixteen: flighty and apprehensive and contemplative. It fits. Descriptions are somewhat vague, but this works to not take away from the fun spirit of the novel. The downside is that the dialogue is, at times, dry. And although some of the events seem a bit unrealistic – in that they wouldn’t happen to most sixteen year olds – they’re whacky enough to keep readers involved.

Leap Day is pure entertainment in such an innocent, coming-of-age form.