I got accepted to review this book years ago, but unfortunately never got around to reading it. Apologies for this.

I don't want to be too harsh since I know this was written by a child, but it was definitely not my cup of tea. As I began reading, I caught myself saying "huh" and "wut" a ton, before I asked myself if this was some famous author or artist I'd somehow missed and that was why this existed. Turns out it wasn't, it's literally just the journaling (if you can call it journaling since it is 99% random sketches with no context) of a random teenager.

The thoughts were completely disjointed and did not flow at all, and the art style of the illustrations was not great either (Obama does NOT look like that). It did remind me of when I was also a teenager and trying to be all "unique/edgy" and calling the things I liked "ironic" because I wasn't at the stage where I could just accept that I liked the things I liked and didn't need to look "cool" all the time. In general, it read more like a journal that was written by someone much, much younger. This just felt like someone who went through their diary and picked out random pages and sketches - it would have made more sense if the author had included some notes about why she felt these were important or what impact the events she described had on her. Instead, it jumps from "oh here's this sketch of my dad doing something silly" to "here's 14 sketches of me trying to be moody."

The only worth I really see in this is that other teenagers might be able to relate somewhat to the experiences of growing up, but it doesn't really add anything original or of substance to the topic, so I can't even say that I would have enjoyed this as a teenager (and I've always been one for super weird and random things). I'm all for supporting children and encouraging them to be creative and artistic, but whoever published this should have sat down with the author and encouraged her to develop some authentic content to pull this together so it doesn't look like I found my godson's notebook in the couch cushions again and had to reread "EMMA YOU BROKE MY HEART" scribbled in GIANT LETTERS over several pages because his first girlfriend didn't play Roblox with him one day. That was the exact feeling I had while reading this, but was about ten times less interesting since I don't know the author personally.

Also, yes, I know I'm about six years late to the party on reading this, NetGalley archived my copy suddenly without any notice and so I didn't even get a chance to download it, so I had to wait to find a suitable copy at a library.

Note: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley. I was not compensated in any other fashion for the review and the opinions reflected below are entirely my own. Special thanks to the publisher and author for providing the copy.

It was a great book that I really enjoyed reading. I think that my students will enjoy it and an independent reading book. Thank you!

Very cute and a very quick read. It was simple yet had a sprinkle of delight in it. I really enjoyed this!

I'm sorry it has taken so long to review this title. I absolutely loved it and appreciate being able to have the opportunity to read it. Thank you.

I wasn't able to download this book. I contacted support but they weren't able to help me.

The Isobel Journal is a vivid narrative scrapbook of the eighteen-year-old author's sketches, mini-graphic novels, photographs and captions. - Goodreads

*Short Review*

Without being a horrible person, I have to say that I didn't like this book and it was two reasons:

the artwork

I know that now it is extremely popular for unconventional drawings. But in this case, I didn't like it. It came across as if no effort was placed in the drawings.

the basic writing

I completely understand that this is a scrapbook for a teenage girl's life but it came off as 10 year old writing even though they were snippets. It was hard to read, hard to keep interest and actually want to finish this book.

This is extremely short review but nothing in me like this book and I am a huge fan of candid journals especially scrapbooks. This one wasn't for me.

1 Pickle