Nope. Not for me. The rhymes just didn't cut it. But I am sure that some grade school kids going to find it inspirational and amusing.... I'll let them locate the book themselves. Sorry.

The title says it all, doesn’t it? There’s all the chapters you’d expect, though occasionally a surprise comes on that forces me to remember this was actually written by an adult. One chapter deals with the death of the family dog; even trees and flowers get entries. He makes an adventure out of getting pens from the storeroom. A lot of them take place at school, which explains why the author at the end noted: These verses are born of 30+ years of teaching 11-year-olds.
The best chapter is likely where the schoolkids realize the graves are of people their age, providing a sobering lesson. On the other end of the scale is the one about dentures. A few were humorous and entertaining, but just as many missed the mark. As might be expected, some of the rhymes are forced. More than that, it was hard to find a flow, as I found myself able to read only a few chapters at a time. But probably the worst problem is that American kids, and even adults, will have trouble with the Britishisms.

I could not even get past the first few pages. I had to DNF it ASAP.

This is a book of poetry by eleven-year-old Trevor Cattell about a fictional boy, Jason Smith who keeps a rhyming diary about the people in his life and his experiences. It's quite clever and very well written. Rhyming is not easy, especially when you are writing in narrative form and Trevor does a great job at it.

*I received an advance reading copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.*

This book is actually quite unique. It is an eleven year olds diary, but written in rhyme. I cannot say I loved the book, since I found it quite boring towards the end.

Perhaps someone else would appreciate this poetry book far more. I did not really find myself in it.

The Rhyming Diary of Jason Smith
At the end of his Key Stage 2 Career

by Trevor Cattell
Matador









Poetry, Children's Fiction

Pub Date 28 Sep 2016
Archive Date 18 Jan 2017

I am voluntarily reviewing a copy of The Rhyming Diary of Jason Smith through the publisher and Netgalley:
Jason Smith is eleven years old and he loves words, especially worfs that rhyme.
He introduces us to his classmates Melissa Morgan who is overweight and he says is always eating. He envies Johnny Causer who will likely one day be a soccer star.
He likes his teacher Mr. Brown as a whole, but he grows tired of his Math lessons even when they aren't in Math Class.
He intoduces us to his Big Sister Sophie, who he calls weird, she even pierced her nose. He finds his little sister Melanie annoying, shes always asking him to play.
He talks about his orange and white cat Ginger and his dog Toby is his best friend but he died, which made Justin very sad. He talks about flowers and trees and his neighbor Liam's kite.
He talks about the day a dog showed up at school.
I give The Rhyming Diary of Jason Smith five out of five stars.
Happy Reading!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33000521-the-rhyming-diary-of-jason-smith

The Rhyming Diary of Jason Smith is full of wonderful poems. I wanted to use this book in my adult ELL class, but the poems are long and vocabulary slightly too complicated for the majority of my students. However, I will absolutely select a few for my advanced students and to use in small groups.