#BlogTour Where the What If Roams and the Moon is Louis Armstrong by Esther Krivda

Today it's my turn on the BlogTour for Where the What if Roams and the Moon is Louis Armstrong. It's quirky, bold and imaginative yellow brick road through the creative mind of a young child.

About the Author
Esther Krivda has acted; studied ballet; worked as an admin in the movie studios in LA and in a talent
agency in NYC; and loves to sing and draw faces. But she didn't discover writing til she took a course in Stop Motion Animation and soon found out her movie would need a script. And that’s when she got the idea of a little girl who cries out but only the man-in-the-moon hears her. She never turned the idea into a Stop Motion Animation movie but she did turn it into this novel, her first.

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Visit estherkrivda.com
Buy Where the What If Roams and the Moon is Louis Armstrong

About the book
A writer, a girl and her parents’ heads are filled to their tippy tops with voices that order them about; tell them one thing one day, the opposite thing the next and sometimes are not even kind to them. ‘Is there more than just me in me?' they fret, til finally they confront their voices,
‘Who are you and why are you haunting me?’ But when the voices answer, can that writer, the girl and her parents live with what they’ve learned?

Pre-Review Comment
Before I get to my review I want to get a something off my chest. I pick books to read based on blurbs, recommendations and if some element of the book draws me to it. I never read a review of a book I am going to read. I do not want my experience to be influenced by the opinions and experiences of others. Tabula rasa.

At the beginning of many books you get soundbites or few words from a review - quotes by bloggers, authors, media ect. That's fine, sometimes I read them and other times I jump straight to the story. I was annoyed by the fact I read a few pages, of what I presumed to be an introduction, foreword or explanation of the book, but was in fact an entire Kirkus review.

Okay thank you, no need to read the darn book now, because somebody else has just told me all about it, what to think about the characters and how they interpreted the story. My immediate reaction was to rethink whether I wanted to read it. Full reviews don't belong in a book, just my opinion. A paragraph, a sentence, a few words, but not a few pages.
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Review
Aside from the epic title this is also a big read at over 650 pages. It's also a read for both younger and older readers. I think the underlying complexity of this story may fly over a very young readers head. They are less likely to relate the fairies or voices in Sophia's head to anything other than something mystical or magical. Or experiencing the movie star school Sophia attends as the escapism it really is.

If you look beyond the babbling fairies, and they certainly do talk a lot, and the slightly eccentric author, the narrator, then what remains is the lonely little girl. The overlooked child, the second thought and the small intimidated person with two overbearing parents.

The concept of the fairies reminded me a little bit of the movie Inside Out, where each cartoon character represented an emotion. Each of the fairies represents a different part of Sophia. Her inner dialogue is sad and entertaining in equal measures, but it also speaks of great creativity. Oh to live in the mind of an innocent.

You have to really read this, which may sound like a strange thing to write, but you can't just fly over the content. You have to enter Sophia's head, sit with her and listen to her inner voices. Sorry, listen to her fairies. Sit in the audience and partake in her movie school extravaganza.

If we take a moment to remember what it was like to go through different coming-of-age thresholds, it is easier to place ourselves in her situation. Do you remember when you found your voice? This entire book leads up to Sophia being able find, develop and use her voice, and what a journey it is.
It's quirky, bold and an imaginative yellow brick road through the creative mind of a young child.

Buy Where the What If Roams and the Moon is Louis Armstrong at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.
Publisher: Wobble Hill Press (3 Oct. 2018)
Buy at Smashwords