3 out of 4 stars
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My Sister, My Friend is a fictional children's book written by Barbara Dominick. The story focuses on the relationship between Jill and Chris, two sisters who live in Harlem, New York. During one seemingly blissful snow day, Chris scolds Jill for engaging in a snowball fight when she was supposed to go home immediately after being dismissed from school. As Jill believes that she will be in huge trouble with her mother, something happens that threatens to change the power dynamic between the two sisters.
I enjoyed the book very much. The exposition that establishes Jill as a main character was well-suited to the situation. My inner child especially enjoyed the snowball fight scene. The word choice of "Freedom" shortly before it occurred definitely conveyed the tone of childish fun during a snow day well.
The images are well drawn. As someone whose college major focuses on graphic design and art, they illustrated the story well by providing imagery every so often. There were some moments in which the images appeared to be stiff when depicting motion, but I don't think that a child would mind this very small flaw. This, along with the word choices, helped me distinguish which of the sisters was Jill or Chris.
One of my favorite aspects of My Sister, My Friend was the fact that the adults were background characters. This was significant because it allows the reader, presumably a child, to relate to the story better by focusing on the children. The adults were not zany or unrealistically over the top in any way, which contributed to the moments of calm and tension that Jill and Chris felt in the story.
The child characters were believable and well-written. Chris is every bit what I would expect an older sister to react when she was scolding Jill. I could believe that the dynamic between the sisters is rocky at best sometimes, given that they are children and that there are unspoken rules between them. When Jill walks back home the second time and walks in on Chris doing something that a nice girl shouldn't do, the reader can believe that it was wrong because of the sisters' reactions to each other afterwards. Dominick conveyed the unspoken rule and sudden shift in power between the sisters very well.
Honestly, I can hardly find anything to nit-pick. There were a few grammatical errors, so I give this book a rating of 3 out of 4. Due to the sentence structure and word choices, this book would be ideal for elementary/grade school children who have an established reading proficiency in their grade. If I were to compare this book to a recent series, I would say that it resembled a show/book series like Arthur or Maya & Miguel.
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"My Sister, My Friend"
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