Middle Grade Review: Erasable

Posted on January 23, 2018 inMiddle Grade

Thank you so much to the author, Linda Yiannakis, for sending me a free copy of this book! All opinions are my own!

Then she sat down and began to make a list of everything that needed erasing from her life.

I enjoy reading middle grade books, and when the author of Erasable reached out to me about reading her book, I was more than a little intrigued by the premise. Have you ever wished you could just erase something from your life? Permanently? Spiders? Snakes? Scrunchies? What about a person? I’m certain most kids think about this daily, and anyone who’s ever felt ignored, treated unfairly, or just plain angry will love this book.

Ellie is 9-years-old, stuck in summer school, and constantly trying to avoid both the school bully and her annoying little brother. One afternoon, while escaping to the attic to get away from her brother’s noisiness, she comes across a carved chest, a mysterious notebook, and an old eraser that never seems to run out. When she discovers that anything she writes in the notebook and then erases with the special eraser disappears, for good, Ellie decides she’s going to make some permanent changes in her life. What she doesn’t know is how those changes will affect everything else around her.

I love the concept here, and I think kids will enjoy it too. Seeing Yiannakis’s version of what would happen if the things we thought we hated most disappeared for good is fun. It’s also a lesson-every time something disappears, Ellie’s life changes, but so do the lives of other people around her, and not in the best way. Be careful what you wish for takes on a whole new meaning here, and it’s a great story for seeing that play out.

While Ellie is 9 in the book, she seems older, (The story is still great for 9-year-olds, she just seems to be doing more complicated math than most third graders.) and I did wonder why the entire school was in summer school, including first graders. I believe the author wanted to play up the fact that Ellie had to take extra classes, rather than enjoy her summer, but it seemed more like the events were just taking place during the regular school year.

Erasable is a fun book that carries an important message-appreciate the people around you, even if they don’t deserve it all the time, because one day they might not be there, and it might not be at all what you expect. Despite the book needing some editing, the message in the story is wonderful, and it’s an extremely creative idea that kids will love. I’d recommend it for ages 8 or 9 and up. (And it might make a fun buddy read with your kids, as there are a lot of interesting topics to discuss in it.)