Tuesday 15 August 2017

Bigfoot, Tobin and Me by Melissa Savage (Children's, 9 years +, 10E/10E)

 May 2017, Chicken House, 288 pages, Paperback, Review copy

Summary from Chicken House
Lemonade’s mother named her for her favourite saying: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. But now her mum’s dead. After relocating to her grandpa’s place in Bigfoot-obsessed Willow Creek, Lem meets Tobin. Quirky and determined, he’s the CEO of Bigfoot Detectives, Inc. and sole investigator for the town. Lem is reluctantly enlisted as his assistant. Together, they try to capture a shot of the elusive beast on film, but what they find is even more amazing.

Nayu's thoughts 
You will need tissues for this sweet tale all about nourishing friendship and partly about finding Bigfoot. Lemonade understandably has a lot of issues after her mother dies, whih her grandfather helps her see she is taking out on others-it takes a long time for that to sink through though. At first, just like me, Lemonade sees Tobin as a dorky geek, who is childish in his insistance of Bigfoot's existance. Lemonade points out reason why bigfoot is false, which hurts Tobin, but stuff happens and reluctantly she believes the legendary animal is real. 

Tobin is using his love of Bigfoot to help deal with his own personal issues which I guessed before they were revealed. I also guessed the identity behind another mysterious creature also before anyone else including Lemonade worked out the shockimg truth. Yet figuring out these parts didn't spoil the story at all. I loved the growing relationship between Lemonade and her grandfather, with some extremely touching moments that made me blub. Losing someone you love is hard, and unfortunately I've experienced it which made Lemon's moments of grief that bit more personal. 

I love how a lot of the locals play a part in the Bigfoot adventure, providing lots of cookies for the young adventurers fresh from the oven and keeping them busy in their free time. I like how when Lemon and Tobin's friendship crumbles a bit, she is actually helping him make friends in the future-it's still hard to read about when they aren't seeing eye to eye. I can't say much about my favourite part because its a major plot twist, but I'm glad it happens as its a topic everyone should know about. Do I believe in Bigfoot? Yes, as we dont know 100% all of the animals that live on this wonderful planet-though I am not obsessed about it as Tobin is! 

Find out more on Melissa's website

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