This is a middle grade.
The storyline was weak and I couldn’t connect to the characters
However I am not the intended audience so children may like this more than me

Believe by Julie Mathison is a good book with some interesting characters and storyline. I enjoyed this book and really liked Melaine for both her character but also her growth.

Believe by Julie Mathison was a cute read that I felt had good messages. I loved how Melanie started to become more confident and not back away when Sabrina came into her life, and all in all this was quite a heartfelt book. I'm sure I'm above the age range of the target audience, but the book was still fairly enjoyable.

An engaging, fun and very emotional read, Believe has wonderful characterisation and a story that will leave an impact on the reader long after they have finished.

My daughter (she’s 10) and I both read this book and found it utterly charming. We loved the main character and both found we couldn’t put the book down once we started reading. A great addition to any children’s library!

A poignant coming of age story with a good helping of captivating mystery. 11-year-old Melanie is being bullied. She finds a way to cope with the hard days by using her imagination. The main themes of the book are grief, friendship, and trust; all things that 11-year-olds are learning about as they grow up. Believe is a great book for middle-grade readers to enjoy.

Although I wasn't the target demographic for this book I quite enjoyed it! Beautifully written and magical, perfect read to escape the rubbish that the world is currently dealing with!

This middle grade explores friendships at a tough age. I wish this book would have been around when I was young. As an adult, I still enjoyed it, even though I am not the target audience. I would recommend all school libraries to purchase this.

I think this book would make a wonderful read for kids 3-8th grade. It's difficult to be different, or not be part of the popular kids groups. But they have their own issues, as we discover as we find our own niches. It's good to have stories about kids on the outside and seeing them find their places! It gives such hope to others. Well written and entertaining story.

I hope my library will take this book into consideration but so far our children’s/ middle grade librarian hasn’t shown interest. I enjoyed the characters and the slow changes that they encountered over the time as our MC took her spot in the spotlight. I hope others will get this into the hands of their young readers as I can see them really enjoying it.

4 stars.

Enjoy reading some of the middle grade books but this was motivating to read!

Melanie was a enjoyable character super sassy and clever. Well young kids have so much of wild imagination so i was shocked to see that how she could explain some of the items with full confidence.

Highly recommend this to all the parents, be sure to pick it up for your kids.

Middle grade books read by adults can be a hit and miss but I'm pleased to say that I really enjoyed this one!

I was provided an advanced digital copy of the book from the publisher via Netgalley for review purposes, all opinions are my own.

Melanie has an imagination that reminds me of my sweet, resilient middle school students. She's trying to deal with her mom not being around, navigate middle school in general, and the lead in Peter Pan. When she meets Sabrina, she knows she has found the counter to all of her insecurities. Sabrina pushes Melanie to confront things that she has been hiding from for awhile.

Melanie is dealing with a lot: her mom has left, her dad loses himself in his art, her grandmother wants her to see a shrink, a mean girl at school has targeted her, her best friend is pushing her to stand up for herself, and another girl whom she thinks could be her friend only wants to be her friend outside of school so that the mean girl doesn't target her, too. On top of that, her class is presenting the play of Peter Pan and Melanie lands the lead role, which is both exciting and terrifying for her.

Although this story is set in the 1980s, there is very little to support that, setting wise. The story eventually reveals a traumatic event and Melanie faces it and copes it with it on her own, which is a little concerning especially after a grandparent begs for her to get professional help, and the advice and plea gets ultimately rejected. There was a lot going on this in this story, and much of it gave just enough to engage the reader and then the story thread came to an end without much of a resolution. I would have liked to see more engagement and resolution with Karen, the bully, especially after Melanie found out Karen's backstory, and the grandmother could have played a much bigger role in the story overall, and realistically would have.

The overall theme of believing in oneself is powerful and well presented, and it was genius to intertwine J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan" with Melanie's story. I especially appreciated what became Melanie's critical analysis of the story and love that it modeled asking questions about "the classics" and ultimately poking holes into what others say makes them a great story.

This book of dealing with extreme adversity by finding and believing in your own inner strength will make a good addition to an elementary/middle school library. I expect it will show up on a few state reading award lists.

I did not finish this book purely because I got lost at around chapter 8. It was when Melanie and Sabrina try to find out more about Melanie's mother who happened to be in some serious incident in Detroit? I was just confused as I thought this was more contemporary children's fiction than mystery. I don't think this was the book for me unfortunately.

I absolutely loved this book and it covered a lot of things that can happen throughout life; loss of a parent (not through death), friendships, growing up in general and the heartache that we have to go through and overcome.
I loved the authors writing in this and how it showed the effects of bullying on the person being bullied. I think this aspect a lot of people would be able to relate to and it was done beautifully.
I would love a hard copy of this and it is actually on my wish for Christmas this year so I would definitely recommend for other people to read it.
This was my first time reading a book from this author and I certainly hope it wasn’t my last. Final rating I actually gave a 4.75 so it was so so close to being the big 5

Melanie is 11 years old and will be in the 5th grade. She and her dad cope with the disappearance of her mother. She really misses her mom. They were very close. She doesn’t understand why her mom just left. Melanie is not happy about seeing Karen the school bully. Karen is mean to Melanie calling her names and asking impossible questions besides gossiping about her. Melanie suddenly has a friend named Sabrina that helps her to become more confident. She decides to try out to be in the school’s play. She gets to be the lead of the play. She has gotten another friend at school but it doesn’t last as she is also bully Karen’s friend. During a rehearsal Karen makes a remark to Melanie that has her running out of the rehearsal. She runs away from home so she can be alone. Will she go back to school? Why did her mom leave Melanie and her dad?

The novel is about friendship, loyalty, and learning to deal with loss. It also shows how being bullied can affect the person being bullied. The author had me completely enchanted by her writing. It felt so real. I found myself being in the novel wanting to support Melanie throughout the book.

For an eleven year old, Melanie has a lot to deal with--the disappearance of her mother a year ago, the constant bullying she has to put up with by her classmate Karen and her shy and awkward nature--but she has her imagination to turn back to whenever she feels alone. Then she meets Sabrina, a girl who is not only named after but looks a lot like Melanie's favourite Charlie's Angels and they fast become friends. With Sabrina's encouragement, Melanie tries for and gets the role of Peter Pan in the school's production and in the process Melanie learns to open up about herself and give a chance to new friendships and adventures and most importantly believe in herself!

Although I am much much older than the targeted demographic for this book, I still found the book to be endearing and emotional. I liked the author's writing style and I just wanted to give Melanie a big hug!! Melanie is a thinker and the way she sees the world around her is unique for a girl her age.

My thanks to NetGalley, the publisher Starr Creek Press and the author Julie Mathison for the e-Arc of the book.

The book was published on 4th August 2020.

I don't know if it was because I was reading it at 4.00 A.M. or if it was because I was particularly feeling emotional at that time...but this book made me cry....very hard. At first, the book felt and seemed quite ordinary. Nothing out of the blue. Simple friendship problems and bullies and the same old regular difficult life of a fifth-grader. But once you reach the second part of the second half of the story......Guys, it makes up for everything that you could have possibly missed. I get this feeling that this book might come across with different meanings for different people...and that actually makes this a good book.

One unique thing about this book is that: it explores dealing with grief, loneliness, depression, and mental health issues through the eyes, mind, and life of a seven-year-old. And I haven't read many (any) books that have done that.....and pulled it off soo amazingly!!!

This is my new favorite! I am so thankful to NetGalley and the author for providing me with a copy of this book. If I ever stop asking you to read this book, it would be too soon

Melanie uses her imagination to escape a myriad of challenges in this beautifully written and unique story set in the 1980s.

Melanie's story begins when she meets Sabrina. Sabrina is all the things Melanie wishes she was. She's brave and independent and doesn't care what anyone thinks of her. She's like one of Charlie's Angels. Sabrina helps Melanie face the school bully, try out for the school production of Peter Pan, and face her mother's absence.

I have very few complaints about this book. I found the author's need to make Melanie think about "advanced" topics such as Hitler and the effects of PCP and use large words and then immediately explain what she's talking about to be distracting and slightly over the top. I think including a couple of issues and leaving it to the reader and possibly a parent to discuss would have been fine. In fact, it would have made it an even better book for reading together with your child. As it is, I feel that she tried to include so many hard issues that it began to feel like she was shoving lessons down the reader's throat.

However, I did appreciate the most prevalent issues in the story; bullying, missing a parental figure, and being yourself.

The characters were mostly well developed and interesting. Melanie is definitely a girl I would have been friends with at that age. The grandmother was fun and feisty. The bully was a little too cookie cutter for me. And the teachers were a nice depiction of what an educator and encourager should be.

Overall I found the story sweet, imaginative, and deep.