Rating: 3 stars
Cover Rating: 5 stars (It's very pretty and shimmery)
Genre: Young Adult
Publication Date: October 12, 2010
Publisher: Candlewick
Page Count: 357 p.
After her parent's divorce, Katla Leblanc is forced to leave LA and head to Minnesota with her mom. Katla misses the sunshine, the fashion and her dad. While working in her Grandfather's shop one night she meets a women called Hulda, who lets her in on a little secret. Katla is a Stork, a women of great power who determines which vessels to put a baby's soul into. Katla is quite surprised and not sure how she is going to handle that. Then enters the boy, Jack, who makes things even more interesting for Katla. She discovers some things about her past that she did not remember, and those memories help her make since of her presence a little better.
I don't understand Katla at all. At the beginning of the book, she is a wicked fashion snob. She looks down her nose at all the Minnesota folk and there non-couture clothing choices. Okay, so this is really how she is the entire book which makes it both unfair that she is bestow this great responsibility and unrealistic that she would actually accept such a mission. Katla definitely doesn't seem like the kind of girl who is crazy about all things mystical and magical. She seems more so like a non-believer. It wasn't like she even had stories about magic while growing up to fuel her imagination. I found the whole concept of Katla as a Stork completely unbelievable. This book sounded really great, I loved the idea of a modern day group of women who play Stork to many hopeful mothers. Unfortunately the actual Stork part of this book was maybe 10% of the whole novel. There was a lot of character development, but not a whole lot of story. I liked Jack, even though he was a little strange to. It would have been a perfect coupling him and a Katla who was more fit to be a Stork, not snobby selfish Katla. I loved Grim Hulda, she was very bizarre and wise, a fun old lady. In the long run however I was disappointed, as soon as they find out that there is a bad guy, he is gone. It was a very anti-climatic part of the story. I wish this story had been better executed, because the concept was so fascinating. I may check out the next book in this series to see if it talks more about the actual business of the Storks, but I am not eagerly anticipating it.
First Line:
"One moment I was fine, and the next it felt like an army of fire ants was marching across my head."
Favorite:
"I handed them over to Jack, who proceeded to vandalize my property."
Don't really like the sound of Katla. It's a bummer that so little actually has to do with being a stork. I'll probably wait until the sequel for this comes out to read it. Thanks for the honesty. :)
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