Call Me Aram

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Fitzhenry & Whiteside (2008)
ISBN 9781554550005
Reviewed by Katie Malone (age 11) for Reader Views (6/09)


I would say this book is okay, but not one of my favorites, because I’m not a big fan of non-fiction. I understand that the author’s main point is to inform us on what it was like for the boys coming from Corfu, Greece to Canada, but I think it could be more interesting. Don’t get me wrong - if you like this kind of stuff you should read this.

The author really did follow the same storyline all through out the book, and she seems to have done her research correctly. Here’s an example on what I mean by saying her writing isn’t that interesting “He retrieved the photograph of him-self that the Canadian had taken.” I know that’s a decent sentence, but I want to be wowed. I think that there should be more adjectives in this sentence. There are quite a few sentences like this one. One of the sentences that I loved was “A fine sliver of wood was jammed under his nail.” I liked her vocabulary in this sentence. In fact she uses great vocabulary through out this book.

I would recommend this book to ages 8 through 13, people who like non-fiction, and people would like to stretch their vocabulary. This book is fine for both genders. I sort of know how Aram feels because I remember moving from the city to the country in the same state being a big deal, and he moved to the other side of the world! I learned that I might be missing a parent, but some people are missing both of their parents. All in all, if you’re interested in reading this book you should. Or maybe you don’t have a book to read then you should read this one.

In conclusion, this book is decent; I enjoyed some of it, and thought other parts were boring. I think that you definitely should read this book. If you’re a teacher reading this, then this book for your students is a wonderful learning experience. Again if you’re a teacher, and your class is studying the year 1923, you should read this book.

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