2010 - When You Reach Me

Dates read: Jan 2010/Feb 2010
Read or listened to: Listened to
Pages: 208 pp.
Rating: ●●●●○

This is a great book. The twist at the end was unexpected, but pretty ingenious.

I loved the way Rebecca Stead treated a common adolescent theme - friendship. At the beginning of the book, Miranda finds her lifelong best friend distancing himself from her. By the end of the book, she has found out why he distanced himself from her (which was not the reason she had "known" to be the case). She realized that reconciliation wasn't necessary, just time. In the mean time, Miranda formed several other valuable friendships and learned the value of stepping outside of her comfortable circle of friends.

1971 - Summer of the Swans

Dates read: January 2010
Read or listened to: Read
Pages: 128 pp.
●●●○○

This was a fine book. It read quickly, but seemed to cover the same themes that a large percentage of other adolescent books cover: low self esteem, becoming friends with the least likely and that family always triumphs. These are all important but so overwritten that I feel that it takes a very wonderful book make it work.

As a parent, though, when I read about a young person who makes her friends more important than her family, I think, "Hmm, that sounds like me at that age." and "Oh, how I wish they understood." They will come to understand the importance of family. (Friends are great, too.) I hope that my kids don't have to go through that particular identity crisis. How do we do it? I don't know but we'll do our best.