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Read Knots In My Yo-Yo String: The Autobiography Of A Kid (1998)

Knots in My Yo-Yo String: The Autobiography of a Kid (1998)

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Rating
3.62 of 5 Votes: 3
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ISBN
0679887911 (ISBN13: 9780679887911)
Language
English
Publisher
ember

Knots In My Yo-Yo String: The Autobiography Of A Kid (1998) - Plot & Excerpts

I have to say I found it a bit odd that this is labeled a "Young Adult" book. Hmm. I just am not sure who (I mean, among young adults) might be interested in this book. I think this would probably suit younger children, say, 4th through 6th grade. It's a very charming book, and it reminds me a lot of my dad's own stories of growing up in West Chester, PA, in the 1940s and 1950s. On the "down" side, I feel that the world Spinelli inhabits in the book would be completely, utterly, mind-bendingly foreign to "today's" children. The big dramas in his life are spelling bees and track meets; his community spends their summer nights at the local bandshell. Who knows...every generation thinks their's is the last carefree generation. I grew up in Michigan and Pennsylvania and I remember playing outside...A LOT. But it helped that we had a backyard that stretched into infinity--I mean, it was big enough to have an entire jungle gym AND a basketball court and those took up maybe 1/8th of our backyard, which also happened to border actual woods. Or at least, a woodsy area. And I remember riding my bike like it was a horse in the circus on the street outside our house. And so on. I don't see "today's" kids doing much of that. They're too busy on their COMPUTERS. So I wonder if a 10 year old today would understand what Spinelli is talking about. Heaving sigh.

Knots in My YoYo String, by Jerry Spinelli, is an interesting autobiography, and I would definitely recommend it to a classmate. In this book Jerry Spinelli plays baseball, basketball, soccer, and football, his lifelong dream is to be a professional baseball player, he only read about five books from ages zero to sixteen. Who knew he would become a famous author when he grew up? Knots in my Yo Yo String talks about his life and how he became an author. When I read about Jerry Spinelli, I thought about how his autobiography connects with the books he has written because in one part of his autobiography he explains how he ran along railroad tracks and always wishes he could untie knots. Maniac Magee a famous book he's written, states how there is a boy who runs on railroad tracks, and knows how to untie complicated knots. I thought that it is very interesting how his real life connects to his books. To conclude, I think Knots in my Yo-Yo String is a great book.

What do You think about Knots In My Yo-Yo String: The Autobiography Of A Kid (1998)?

Although it's really simple and very different from what I grew up with, this memoir is wonderful. Perhaps because of its simplicity, the kids that Spinelli talks about are people I could relate to others I knew, and he absolutely captures the magic of the boundless enthusiasm of kids. Also, it's a great window into the 50s and growing up with such exciting things as new televisions, the slowing railroad business, and a neighborhood where kids were perfectly able to run where they liked.Very fun and very quick; I'm hanging on to this one to remind myself never to grow up too much.
—Jen

Knots in My Yo-Yo String Biography/Non-Fiction/Childhood/Coming of Age/SportsI love this book. Jerry Spinelli talks about his life as a kid, but he also weaves his experiences into how being a kid has helped him as a writer. Spinelli has said his best experience as a writer was being a kid and growing up. He beautifully captures what it's like to be a carefree kid. I long to return to those days even though they are far gone, but I find myself somewhat satisfied when Spinelli helps me revisit my own childhood through his stories. He covers the gamut from neighborhood games and legends, to first kisses and school dances. I would consider this a must read for any aspiring young adult novelist.
—Clarissa

An autobiographical piece by Jerry Spinelli covering mostly his formative years in grades K-12. Its mostly separated into chapters which each teach a specific life lesson through a personal anecdote or two and only occasionally spends time describing the how’s and why’s of Spinelli’s family and career. I personally enjoyed that it taught life lessons in parables and thus did not have to didactically confront the lessons head on. He gets the messages across by example and the personal nature of it makes it easy to feel at home. Spinelli is actually opening up his life to the reader and that creates a friendly, trusting atmosphere that gives greater force to the morals. It covers his infancy through high school at a brisk pace, giving the reader a chance to grow up with him and see a lot of personal reflections. The post high school chapters are brief and highly abridged but give some idea as to his process of becoming a writer. Only marginally useful as an informational text, but a great personal read for youth who may need a solid character model or, by selecting a specific chapter it can be used to target an appropriate life lesson.Genre: autobiography, moral lessons, childhood reminiscencesfulfills non-fiction requirement, author presentation novel
—Daniel Asay

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