While I was on vacation, I brought along a whole bunch of books. I still had a little less than half of My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich to finish, so I brought it along to read on the plane.

This review is on an Advance Reader Copy I was gifted from a friend at Penguin Young Readers. If you’d like to know more about that, check out this post.

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You may recognize this from my Reading Rush TBR. I’ve been trying to finish My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich for a while. I finally did, just in time for the release.

The Good

A book set in the 80s with a black girl on the cover, 9-year-old me would have been over the moon. I liked all the 80s references, even if I didn’t always get it. You could tell it was something personal for the author.

I enjoyed the illustrations. They were a pretty cool element of the story.

The Not so Good

I think this story would’ve worked better if Ebony Grace was younger. It seemed impractical for a 12-year-old to be doing and saying what she did and said.

I wish there had been more about her grandpa’s story, not just the space adventures. We never actually found out what happened. I feel like that was just a cop out.

I don’t know the exact timeline, but it sounds like her grandmother’s death was pretty recent. She barely talked about it during the story though. There was no real grief or healing about her grandma’s passing.

I liked the illustrations but I wish there were more of them in the story. The ones there were fairly spaced out. Keep in mind, this was an ARC so the final novel may have been changed.

All in All

I had to force myself to finish this. It just wasn’t my cup of tea.

If you have a child who is into outer space, then they might enjoy this. I’ll probably give this to my younger cousins, specifically the 9-year-old.

Have you read My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich?

What books did you read when you were 9?

What books do you wish were out when you were a kid?

Let me know in the comments below, let’s chat!