Customer Reviews
Fisher Man 
2007-07-31
Paul Fisher, AKA Fisher Man, has a not so normal life. Living on top of muck fires and in a termite-infested house with a brother that has everything a child could want, he turned out pretty normal. In the book Tangerine by Edward Bloor, Paul finds a way of life in Tangerine County.
I thought Paul's life was not very realistic because there was too much going on at once. His best friend's brother died, his school started melting into a sinkhole, and he gets bullied by everyone. This book needs to have more focus to it other than bullying. How could one kid get beat up by his brother and get teased by the almost the whole county without his parents knowing anything?
I have to say it had great detail but I would only recommend it to readers that like soccer and for those who like intense stories.
A really great book 
2007-07-19
My son who is 12 read this book as part of his summer reading assignment from school - I also read it - what a great story! We especially enjoyed it because I grew up in Florida and the story was so true to how all the developers and transplants have tried to turn the state into one giant Disney and how nature thwarts them whenever it can - but anyone would enjoy this book. It is a great story with a really good message.
Sports Story With So Much More 
2007-07-01
Sports play a big part in the plot of TANGERINE as the legally blind progagonist, Paul, is a talented soccer player and his games are described in vivid detail. Paul's sinister older brother is a star football player and his adventures as a kicker are also integral to the tale. Yet the book examines many facets of modern suburban life beyond the sports field. The adults who are almost all well developed can be described as ambitious upwardly mobile people who populate pretentious new subdivisions, disdain the natural world on which their "mcmansions" are built and tend to live through their children. Conflicts between ethnic groups and socioeconomic groups are also well examined. The consequences of unacknowledged misdeeds is a strong theme. Though the individual characters are well drawn and Paul and his friends are very sympathetic the situations include several unlikely natural disasters and tragedies which makes the total story a bit surreal. The book is worth reading as it is well written and appealing to middle school aged students.
Family Problems 
2007-06-10
Paul's family has always moved quite a bit. This time he is in seventh grade, his brother Erik is a senior in high school and they are moving to Tangerine, Florida. Erik is expected to be a star football player there, continuing the dream he and his parents have of a life of football. Paul has heard the dream so often that he is sick of it and the way his father, especially, never seems to focus on anything else.
Paul is a great soccer player, although his parents don't seem to notice. His abilities are surprising, actually, since he's had a problem with his eyes for years and has to wear thick glasses to correct his vision. He was told that the damage was caused by looking at a solar eclipse, but Paul has fuzzy and fleeting memories of something else--something that involves his brother.
Things go fairly badly for Paul until a disaster at his middle school causes him to be transferred to a more inner-city school nearby. There he is able to make the soccer team and to be accepted by the other members. For the first time in his life, he finds himself unafraid to stand up to his brother and to fight for what's right.
I liked how Paul kept unraveling little bits of the mystery of his eyes throughout the story until he could finally remember what happened. I also liked the circumstances that brought Paul to his new school, and I liked the interaction between him and his group of friends.
I found it hard to believe, though, that Paul's parents, knowing Erik's history and his personality, would have treated him like a king for so long. I also couldn't understand Joey's prejudice, and then I couldn't understand why Paul put up with it and continued to be his friend.
Tangy Twist on Life 2007-02-26
Tangerine by Edward Bloor
I really enjoyed this book. Bloor does an amazing job sucking the reader into the story and keeping you interested with all the twists and turns in the book. Each character is unique and sometimes unpredictable, but I felt like I could connect with some of them and understand their feelings and motives.
Paul Fisher and his family are moving from Houston, TX, to Tangerine, FL. Paul is forced to try and fit in at a new school while living in his brother's shadow. Erik Fisher, Paul's older brother, is becoming a football legend. The young star is a placekicker and hoping to get a scholarship for college and play in the NFL. Erik and Paul's dad is always wrapped up in the Erik Fisher Football Dream that he barely pays attention to Paul at all.
Soccer was Paul's sport. He played goalie even though he had to wear goggles and thick glasses because of an accident that occurred when he was younger. His parents said he stared directly at a solar eclipse and was almost blinded. Paul doesn't believe this is what really happened, but his memory is blank. At his new school, Paul's mother files an EIP because Paul is visually impaired. I was really surprised that he couldn't play soccer when the coach saw his EIP because you expected soccer to be the thing to bring him out of his brother's shadow. Conveniently enough, half of Lake Windsor Middle School is swallowed by a sinkhole and Paul and his friend Joey were part of the rescue team that helped people get out and escape the disaster before it buried them. I think this shows Paul acts very mature for his age. When I was reading the book, I kept thinking he was older, but the book would always remind me that he was only in seventh grade. After the natural disaster, Paul is relocated to Tangerine Middle, his second chance.
While attending Tangerine Middle, Paul joins the soccer team because his mom threw out the EIP. He quickly makes friends with his teammates after a rough start. Together they face school, soccer, and flash frosts. Through it all I feel Paul's relationship with his friends is strong. They do face many conflicts such as standing up for your friends against people who are hurting them.
Meanwhile, Erik is gaining fame from his amazing kicks from as far as 50 yards. Unfortunately, the neighborhood has taken a turn for the worst. When they tried to put out the muck fires, they accidentally created a breeding ground for mosquitoes, and a lot of houses have a termite problem. There have also been mysterious robberies. Paul even witnesses a murder.
Tangerine was an amazing book. The plot and characters make it an enticing story for teenagers, but I also recommend it to adults. The story contained family conflicts that may seem out of the ordinary but are completely realistic. I loved how quickly things happened and changed in the book. It made me want to keep reading until the very end. To find out the mysterious secret of Paul's eyes and his past, read Tangerine by Edward Bloor.
Beth LA-8
Thought-provoking; but Parents B-ware 2008-07-13
My ten-year old son absolutely loved this book. It is full of teen angst, and sports-related action; however, the subject matter is very heavy and can be somewhat disturbing. The blurb on the back of the book gave me no indication that issues of violence and bullying in the book (and some uncomfortable language) were addressed within. The actual reading level is not difficult, but as thought-provoking as this book is, I recommend it for very mature kids or students in grades 7-12.
Excellent book - especially for middle school boys 2008-05-17
I'm a 46 year-old Mom and I bought this book because of the great reviews, but I didn't know which son to give it to. My 4th grader falls into the age-range mentioned here at amazon, but based on the plot synopses here I felt it was more a book my 7th grader would like.
So I read it myself first. I LOVED it. What a great, moving, inspiring, different book. As stay-with-you as Hoot, or Terabithia, or Stargirl, or... to date myself ... as The Outsiders.
It's well-written, it's gripping, it's multi-layered, and it manages to keep track of multiple story arcs within itself without dropping any or using any sort of deux ex machina to get out of any. It presents it's villains without caricature, and it's heroes without pandering. It surprises you at nearly every turn - but not in a forced we-need-a-plot-twist way.
I won't describe the plot as it as been so well-described here. I'll just reiterate that this is an amazing young adult novel that I thoroughly enjoyed for myself as well.
And I personally would not give this to my 4th grader. Not that the reading level is too difficult, but I think the content is too dark and the layers perhaps too subtle for a 10 year-old. I'm giving this book to my 7th grader tomorrow (I just finished it tonight!) and I know he'll devour it.
Tangerine 2008-02-05
What a page turner! This engaging book is about a boy who has just moved to a new area, Tangerine County, Florida, with his family. He is a young man who is constantly outdone by his older star-football-player brother and is stuggling to find his place in life, in Tangerine county, and in his family. This book captures you into his world, taking you through the ups and down of the self-awarness and moral issues of middle school. This young man must ultimitly chose to do the right thing or to do what is expected of him. It deals with a question that every young person is asked, "What do you want to be?"
Relativly short and an easier read than some, this book is a good read for most middle schoolers and young adults alike. It is well written and engaging with many twists and turns (especialy the ending!!!).
A real page-turner - Wow! 2007-08-19
Through his computerized diary entries, Paul Fisher tells the story of his seventh-grade year. These entries not only let him describe what is happening, they give him the opportunity to reflect on his past.
At the beginning of the story, the Fisher family has just moved to Florida from Houston. The diary entries tell the story of how Paul's brother, Erik, has always bullied him. He even has his friends call Paul Eclipse boy because of a bad vision problem that was supposedly caused by Paul looking at an eclipse for too long. His parents virtually overlook Erik's digressions because they are focused on what Paul calls the 'Erik Fisher football dream.'
To make things worse, Paul gets kicked off of his new soccer team because his Mom had told the school that he has a visual 'handicap'. But Paul believes that his vision is much better and it is proven in his many observations chronicled in the diary.
When the portable school units had Paul's middle school are swallowed by a sinkhole, Paul is given a chance to go to another school and he takes it. Because he knows that at Tangerine Middle School he can play soccer. Paul's ability to 'see' people for who they are may be even more sharp than his ability to see. He doesn't see the class or racial barriers that separate him from the kids in this other school. His eagerness to play also earns him the respect of the other team members.
As the story unfolds, Paul sees snippets of his past and the history of his family comes clear to him. And he is the unlikely hero in this heartwarming tale.
Paul was endearing from the start. The writing in this novel is impeccable. The story is fantastic - a real page-turner. I read it all through in a day. There is a dark undertone to this book though so I would not recommend it for younger kids.
Tangerine 
2007-08-12
When I read this book it didn't seem like there were any happy times in it. It seemed like all it was, was violence, and bullying. If I were older I think I would have understood it better, and maybe I would even like it. When I picked it off of the summer reading book list, I thought I might like it so I kept on reading, but nothing good or exciting happened, and that is how I feel about this book.
