Review: The Rise and Fall of Bibi Karstad

Title: The Rise and Fall of Bibi Karstad
Author: Judy Dearborn Nill
Date Released: December 20th, 2010
Pages: 200
Rating: 4 out of 5

Description:Fourteen-year-old Bibi Karstad hits the ceiling way too often. Recently transplanted to a small Oregon town by her channeler mother, Bibi hates living away from her father in Seattle. She also hates her mother's spirit guide, Prancing Bear, whom she calls Panting Bore. He scares her, as does a growing suspicion that she's more like Mom than she wants to admit. On Halloween night, alone in her mother's New Age bookstore doing research to discredit mediums, Bibi accidentally discovers a talent for levitating out of control. Now she must keep her ability secret long enough to win the newspaper contest that will return her to Seattle.

Review:
The Rise and Fall of Bibi Karstad was a very enjoyable short read. It was definitely really cute, and while it started off slow, towards the middle, it really started picking up.

I’ll admit, at first, I wasn’t really sure what The Rise and Fall of Bibi Karstad was about because it kind of seemed like a whole lot was going on, but then, when she first levitates, it starts to make more sense. I think that Nill also weaved into the story the important of acceptance since Bibi has a hard time accepting her mother, who claims she’s a witch, and the fact that she can’t move in with her father.

Bibi, as a character, was really cool. At times, she sort of seemed to act like a little kid, and I would constantly get confused as to whether she really was in high school or not, but other than that, she was witty and fun to read about. She made the book really funny with her crazy little incidents and problems that she would always run into.

I kind of wished there was a little more to the story because after she first starts to levitate, it seems to go a little too fast, and it almost seemed like the portion of the story about her trying to win the newspaper competition was pushed out of the way.  I think what I'm trying to say is that I wished that the competition and the discovery of her power had equal parts in the story, instead of pushing each other aside.

Overall, Nill wrote a very light, and entertaining story.  The main character, Bibi, was very funny and made the book enjoyable.  If you're looking for a short read, then The Rise and Fall of Bibi Karstad will be perfect!

Cover Review:
I'm actually not the biggest fan of this cover.  It's a cute cover and I like that it seems to be depicting a pretty hilarious scene from the book, but when I first saw it, I'll admit, I thought that it was about a middle school student.

Cleo :)

*Description from goodreads.com
**Review copy received from author.  Thank you Ms. Nill!