Comments on: Review: Jasper Jones

By: Liz B

Liz B — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 22:13:20 +0000

TK, really? Now I want to know what was more cricket because it seemed pretty crickety. And Now I’m reminded of the only other book I can remember reading that had significant cricket mentions: LIFE THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING by Adams.

By: TK

TK — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 17:52:26 +0000

Craig Silvey told us on the Printz committee that the Australian version contains more cricket, and his US editor trimmed some, for the sake of American readers Which pained him initially, but he agreed was the right decision.

By: Liz B

Liz B — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 15:19:40 +0000

Jen, exactly! I cannot believe I had such a turnaround on this. . . . It just, well, haunts the reader. And I’m glad that the publisher didn’t say “Americans won’t get cricket” and kept it in. I don’t get cricket, but I got that scene.

By: Jen J. (Formerly Jen B.)

Jen J. (Formerly Jen B.) — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 15:07:36 +0000

When I finished reading this, I thought I didn’t like it that much. I admired the craft in the writing, but don’t typically read for literary writing – I’m much more likely to fall into or for a book for almost anything else – plot or character or setting – not that Jasper Jones didn’t have those things, but they weren’t what I most associated with it. I was amazed to find it just kept sticking with me and making me think about it, and ended up changing my rating on Goodreads and then when I made my list of top 10 books from 2011 (from the limited 2011 titles I had read of course), there it was again. I even think I’ll read it again sometime which I didn’t think originally – I’d love to do this title with a book club. And I also particularly noticed the cricket scene – I am not a sports person, I know nothing about cricket, but I was in that scene 100%.