Description
Xander Maze is a list-maker. But can his list of 100 Remarkable Feats really save his nanna? Xander Maze loves lists, and his grandmother is #1 in his list of People I Love Most in the World. But now that Nanna has stage 4 cancer, can a new list of 100 Remarkable Feats really save her life?
Particularly when his list contains difficult things like #2 Make a Friend and #3 Make a Best Friend. Funny, moving and with a protagonist you can't help but fall in love with, 100 Remarkable Feats of Xander Maze is #1 Heartbreaking #2 Heartwarming and a book about defying the odds, not accepting the unacceptable, and one boy's unconditional love for his nanna.
Review
There is so much to love about this book, but let’s start with the remarkable Xander Maze, our main character, a fifteen-year-old writer of lists.
Xander’s Dad died when he was only three, leaving him with an incredibly overprotective mother. But Xander’s true hero is his Nanna, who has stage 4 cancer. She is absolutely the #1 on his list of people he loves most in the world.
Nanna encourages Xander to write a list of 100 Remarkable Feats. If he achieves all the things on his list, it will make her better. And so Xander’s quest begins!
With the help of people that he mostly meets through performing his remarkable feats, some very small, Xander’s life slowly transforms.
His quest goes viral and he achieves some truly remarkable things along the way, and shows that for an amazing journey sometimes you just need to take the first step.
Xander Maze is a truly amazing character. His love for his Nanna is beautiful, as is his view of the world. The friendships he forms with a diverse range of people are wonderful, and the whole premise of the book is to try to live a better, fuller life. Both for others, but also for yourself.
With themes of family, love, bullying and acceptance, Xander’s hope shines through this story and makes this a real feel-good novel that will suit all teenager readers.
Reviewed by Rob
