Pay It Forward by Catherine Ryan Hyde Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Pay It Forward
Book Review: Great Book for Educators!
Summary: 4 Stars
As a teacher, this book was inspiring because of the faith that one boy had in an assignment given to him by his social studies teacher. It is encouraging to read material which centers around teachers and their lives.Book Review: Great Idea, Bad Novel
Summary: 1 Stars
It is hard to give Pay It Forward a bad review. I feel like such asour puss because Pay It Forward is based on such a wonderful premise:
do three people a favor and instead of asking them to pay you back,
ask them to pay your favor forward. They should each do favors for
three more people, and so forth. Great idea, right? But it comes to
us in a poorly written novel. The character development is
non-existent. So many of the characters in this novel do things which
make no sense. The narrative is disjointed and has no flow. Hyde
uses devices to get certain aspects of the story into the narrative
and these devices just do not work. As an example, when she wants to
get into a character's head, she inserts an excerpt from other,
fictional books about the events taking place in the novel. These
fictional books just seemed so contrived and I thought there would be
better ways to get her point across.
Because this book has such a
fabulous premise, I believe the movie will be better than the book. I
recommend waiting for the movie and focusing on the intriguing message
of the book. Don't waste your time on the book at all. It's not
worth it.
Book Review: Great Story, 3 Stars
The story itself was very moving. I won't give the end, but I wondered why so sadistic? It seemed like writing a bad ending probably seemed like a good idea, because the author thought it would be more realistic; actually it seemed more contrived and purposely done, than if it was written happily ever after. And I wonder why they chose to use Kevin Spacey, instead of say, Denzel Washington, or the like......... the main character in the book is Afro-American. Go figure.Book Review: Great book. Less great author.
Summary: 4 Stars
I loved this story and movie and always recommended it as a positive, non-sappy, real story. I still do. What freaks me out is that today I learned how the author of this wonderful book, Catherine Ryan Hyde, is less-than-wonderful in her personal life. Catherine Ryan Hyde 2010 transgender-themed young adult novel, "Jumpstart the World," was written about her transgender sibbling Leslie Feinberg.
As part of the media coverage and publicity tour for "Jumpstart the World," Hyde claims much of her expertise and authority for writing this book was based on her sister. Catherine has been truly unkind to Leslie, according to Leslie; I believe Leslie as she was a much-beloved teacher of mine and many, many others 15 years ago.
Well, I know that is human nature, to fall short of what we know to be right. But, I would hope that someone as talented as Catherine Ryan Hyde could add least try to respect her own sibbling a bit more. At least not misrepresent her relationship with her brother so poorly. Here are the words of her sibbling, Leslie Fienberg: [...]
Book Review: Horrible Writing Kills Story
Summary: 1 Stars
Pay It Foward could have been a decent book. It really could have. Unfortunately, the only people that enjoy it now are people that aren't completely literate.The writing is bad. There is no other way to say it. Anyone that passed high school english could formulate more coherent sentences. It seems like the author wrote one draft, put it on the fridge for a few days, and had it published. It is poorly put together, the characterization is weak, and even the plot is all over the place.
You can tell the people that made the movie thought so too because they changed around the entire story so it would make some sense.
Don't bother with the book. It is a waste of paper.