I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The story revolves around a teen with a disability who learns how to love herself for her vs. who she feels she should be all set with a mixed family setting, single parent setting, art, creativity, love and living life.

For me this book hit home. I am not a teenager but I became disabled when I was in my early 20's. I also come from a single parent home and I dabble in the arts. To me, this book was a great inspiration.

I do recommend this book for anyone with a disability as I think it would be more treasured for those of us with hardships. Someone in a previous review stated she was looking for a climax. I'd like to point out that learning to live life to one's fullest and being able to be yourself- despite one's disability- is the climax. Only those that have been through this will get this aspect, I think. ( )

Originally Reviewed At: Mother/Gamer/Writer
Rating: 3 Controllers
Review Source: Blog Tour
Reviewer: CrayloaKym



This is a coming of age story where finding who you truly are and the essence of being can be refreshing. Being fifteen and having Cerebral Palsy, Aiko has typically turned to trying to be as invisible as possible, to the point she writes manga under a pseudonym and distributes it throughout school and town where it is becoming quite a hit with the locals, including the boy she really likes and just so happens to be one of the leading stars. Her mom is a vivacious artist who has always sought out inspiration through the demise of Aiko’s disability and enamors the art world on a global scale. When her art takes them to Paris, Aiko finds there is more to the world and it is time she stepped from her shell and become her own woman.

At first glance, the cover is confusing. The title is Gadget Girl and there are pictures of egg beaters, pliers, a utility knife, and a sculpting knife. Is this book about a girl and gadgets or a girland tools? When I think of gadgets, I think of calculators, spy equipment, computers, and anything specifically techy and nerdy. After reading the synopsis, I was even more confused. I’m still not seeing “gadgets.”

Author Suzanne Kamata does a splendid job building really emotional intact characters that are genuinely likable and easy to relate to. Aiko’s story is a common one of disability,single parent, teenage insecurities and longing to have some sense of resolution in knowing her real father and figuring out what her mom is hiding and why. Where I found problems, was other than Aiko and her mother, the characters were only seen on the surface and a bit more depth to the supporting characters could really have carried this story further.

Kamata has a talent for building the world around her characters which tends to pick up the weight of the story where it lacks. The reader gets an array of adventures in Gadget Girl taking you through multiple settings. From a high school to a cafe in Paris, these moments throughout the book kept the story moving along despite the story itself feeling slow and only mildly alive.

I felt the story was denied real feeling and just slipped through the events as it progressed through the chapters. Aiko wrote her own manga, however, it would have been nice to have delved a bit deeper into this story line, after all, it is the name of the book yet it only had a surface story in the book. She writes it under a pseudonym, her friend’s brother prints it and they distribute it, even throughout Paris and the story line is about a girl, much like Aiko, and her woes of life. It really had too small of a role in this book.

Chapter after chapter I kept saying this is where the climax will be. But it just never came. This is where she will have her big romantic moment; it never came. She will find some medical trial for her Cerebral Palsy; it never came. She will find her dad and hear his side; it never came. I was even more distraught when finishing up Chapter 36, I went to turn the page and that was it. The End. I was actually perturbed as it lacked an ending all together. I actually scrolled around a bit to make sure my Kindle hadn’t skipped forward, but no. That was it.

While the book did have my emotions on a roller coaster throughout the chapters, it just so happened to have been a kiddy roller coaster missing all of the thrills of the ups and downs. While I wouldn’t buy this book, I would say if you have absolutely nothing left to read and the library has a copy, to pick it up. You won’t hate it, but you won’t love it either.



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This book concerns a child of a Japanese father and American mother. The child is in her early teen years and is an avid comic book artist and story creator. She moves through a life with brain disorder which resulted from early birth problems with breathing. The adventures take her and her mother to Paris to an art show. The items in the show are her mother's sculptures of her daughter growing up. She at last meets her father and half-brother via Skype. A really good read. ( )