Great format and a few snarky moments, but not enough plot for me.

Told through the eyes of a twelve-year-old boy, The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet By Reif Larson is a wonderful example of imaginative writing combined with an innovative presentation style. While not designed specifically for young people, the book would be of interest to high ability middle school and high school readers.

What makes the novel unique is the author's use of illustrations and side notes in the margins to extend the reading experience.

The story follows a gifted boy who has been invited to receive an award and speak at the Smithsonian. T.S. thinks that once the officials learn that he's a boy and not an adult scientist, they will be withdraw the award. He decided to venture across country from a ranch in Montana to city of Washington D.C. on his own. Many aspects of the book feel set in another time and place, but that contributes to surreal feeling.

I enjoyed both the book's format as well as the quirky characters. I could empathize with the boy's eccentricities and loves of visuals. I recommend this novel. ( )

I thoroughly enjoyed being in the head of TS Spivet. The first 1/3 of the book was well-done and I looked forward to the rest of it. But somewhere along the train trip things got weird and the time in WDC was just unbelievable. I'd read another by the author based on the writing in this one. ( )

Did you ever enjoy reading a book, and, at the end, could not for the life of you decide if you liked it or not? I gave it five stars, because I really did enjoy reading it, but I don't think I could recommend it to anyone. How odd. ( )

What an odd book. I started loving it, but quickly tapered to an eagerness for it to end. It became very contrived and tedious for me. I see that so many have rated it very highly, and I think I must have missed something.

At the beginning, I loved the clever illustrations and side bars... It is a very beautifully crafted book. The story then took an odd segue into his great grandmother's life. Interesting, but it didn't go anywhere meaninful. Then, he arrived in Washington to run into a series of cardboard, comicbook quality characters - very shallow and unidimentional.

what kind of ending was that??? sigh ( )