My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’m so glad there are books like this out there for kids right now. It’s 2020, the world is messed up, and Shine! does a great job of showing the importance of not looking outside of yourself and finding the ways in which you can help others. Sometimes it is hard to look at the struggles of someone else and help them when it would mean you had to give something up that you wanted.
The fact that Piper reacts to situations in a completely different way than her peers makes the distinction clear. There are not multiple people going out of their way to help those around them, in fact, the other students are doing the complete opposite. There is an award being offered to one student, and everyone is out for themselves, trying to show how they are better than those around them.
It seems crazy to think that only one student in a whole school was willing to help others and not just think of herself, but like I said, it’s 2020, there is a lot of that going around. It doesn’t seem so far fetched that the person helping those around them would be rare in a world where everyone is only thinking about what is in it for them.
This is a middle-grade book, but I’m going to recommend it to everyone. We could all use something positive and charitable in our lives. Really, we should all just try to be like Piper.
Author: J. J. Grabenstein and Chris Grabenstein
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: November 5th 2019
The Furious Reader 