Meet Bernardo, an eight foot tall guy who is only 13. Moving from the Philippines and trying to fit in with his new school, Bernardo is only stopped from making any friends at his school by one thing: his height. Bernardo for the first couple of chapters deals with discrimination due to his significant height for a thirteen year old boy.

The story is set in London. Bernardo moved from the Philippines to London for some unexplained reason the book never explains why but it is assumed that he is going there for schooling reasons, as we learn more about the main character Bernardo, his parents and his family. Bernardo tries very hard to fit in with the rest of his peers, Bernardo is not completely alone however he does eventually have some friends later  in the story. I could go more into detail about that but it would dive into spoiler territory.

The writing in the book is mostly superb. The author definitely knows how to write characters and give them some emotion and feeling. Earlier I said that the novel has ‘mostly’ superb writing. Why say mostly? Well that is because the book has some very particular moments where the writing had a slight bit of awkwardness feel to it and generally it is one of the book’s worst aspects. But in other areas as mentioned earlier the writing is superb. Also another issue that I would like to bring up is that during the first half of the book the story goes absolutely nowhere, because the book focuses way too much on the back story and sometimes that could get a little bit annoying. There are better ways to bring character development into a story without making it feel so forced.

I really recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a light-hearted story and doesn’t mind that almost half the book is back story and don’t mind that sort of character development. This story would be great for any young teenager and adult to read. I’d rate the book “Tall Story’s” a 3.5 out of 5 stars. Jack H, Grade 9