Book Review - Tall Story

Title: Tall Story
Author: Candy Gourlay
Publisher: David Fickling Books
Release Date: 6 Jan 2011
ISBN-13: 978-1849920391

Synopsis
Be careful what you wish for . . .
Andi is short. And she has lots of wishes. She wishes she could play on the school basketball team, she wishes for her own bedroom, but most of all she wishes that her long lost half brother, Bernardo, could come and live in London, where he belongs.
Then Andi's biggest wish comes true and she's minutes away from becoming someone's little sister. As she waits anxiously for Bernardo to arrive from the Philippines, she hopes he'll turn out to be tall and just as mad as she is about basketball. When he finally arrives, he's tall all right. But he's not just tall ... he's a GIANT.
In a novel packed with humour and quirkiness, Gourlay explores a touching sibling relationship and the clash of two very different cultures.

My Review
This is the last book I have to read for Book Day at work. So I have now finished and just have to try and remember them all until next month when we meet.
This book is split between Andi and Bernardo. Andi is a tomboy, she lives in London and dreams of playing Basketball, she just makes the team at her school when her mum tells her they are moving, but the worst thing is that her new school Basketball team is boy only so she can't see any way of achieving her dream of being Point Guard on the team. 
Bernardo lives in the Phillipines, he is Andi's half brother, when his mum came over to England they wouldn't clear his paperwork and so he got left behind with his aunt, but now he has been told he can finally come over to London. The only thing is that he is 8 foot tall, the people in his town believe he is the reincarnation of a Giant, the being that is sent to keep them from harm so it's hard to leave them, it's even harder to fit in in a new country when your like a giant.
This book was very unusual, i'm still not sure if I enjoyed it or not. There were bits that really caught my attention and other bits I rolled my eyes at.
Andi comes across as a bit spoilt to me, she whines quite a lot and seems quite selfish, maybe her life hasn't been perfectly the way she thought it would but the amount of complaining she did really bugged me. She does change a bit as the story goes on which show her development as a character, but I still didn't really like her.
Bernardo on the other hand is very humble and accepting, he tries his hardest to please people and fit in, but he's also not afraid to stand out a bit. He cares a lot for other people and has a great heart. I wanted him to do well and be happy. But there were also moments where he is so consumed with other peoples problems that he forgets his needs, he came across as quite weak there.
But I did care about him as a character and I wanted to keep reading to just know what happens to him.
The mother seems to be a bit of a control freak, but she made me laugh a few times, the dad is a pushover, doesn't get much say. The aunt is a spirit of her own, a bit relaxed and nothing is too much trouble.
The storyline develops nicely and I did start to get into the book. The plot is a good idea and I liked to see the growing relationship between Andi and Bernardo. 
Overall I thought this book was quite good and I'm glad I read it, it was very unusual and different, but I don't think I would read it again.
Worth a one time read though, this book may surprise you.

My Rating