This is the first Ceaco puzzle I’ve done. The pieces are a bit thin, not too flimsy but feel like I have to handle them carefully to avoid bent knobs. The colors are super bright. Easy size and subtle variety in the puzzle cut. The piece count was just right for a day I wasn’t feeling too great (after my covid booster shot: very very tired). I like the blue-green foliage, the tropical birds and butterflies. I thought the tiger stripes would be hard to put together, but it fell into place nicely, with the right level of difficulty when I had rather dull focus! So pretty.
I took a chance and broke my rule to not buy opened thrift store puzzles: luckily this one didn’t have any missing pieces! They all have the same cut: two holes, two knobs, but within that limitation enough variation that it wasn’t too hard to visualize fits. Only a few times did I have a piece in the wrong spot which threw me off for a while. What made it tricky was all the dark hues- I kept confusing pieces of elk fur with the rocks, and dark of the water with the lichens. It was just the right level of challenge.
When I saw the bright cover of this book, I thought it was going to be a light, maybe silly story. Not at all. It addresses some serious issues- kids having to live with a medical condition, mental illness, dealing with grief over the death of a parent, difficulties with friendships, and more (there’s another kid in the story who has asthma). I expected at the start that the girls would quickly become friends, but they don’t begin interacting much until near the end of the book- which felt like a realistic development. The story feels very current, full of phrases kids use nowadays (that didn’t exist when I was that age!) And yet something felt a bit off to me. The portrayal of what Meg went through when she wasn’t at school- I kept thinking, is that what it’s really like, for a child living in poverty? I wondered why nobody at the school noticed she was wearing the same clothes day after day, or insisted she put on proper shoes instead of slippers (my child’s school is pretty adamant about shoes) and why other adults didn’t investigate the situation when it was clear Meg often came to school hungry. On the other hand, a review I read written by someone who actually has diabetes, had criticism about how Riley’s story was portrayed. And there’s the questionable revelation at the end, that sometimes Meg is faking her panic attacks to avoid situations. I’m sure there’s kids who would do this, but it didn’t sit well with me.
