In this poignant,
realistic, contemporary YA by a state master list star, perfect for fans
of Sarah Dessen and Gayle Forman, a young songwriter builds a
substitute family with her friends in place of the broken family she
grew up with.
A hip high school girl who loves music, writes
songs, and is desperate for a ukelele, learns to her shock that her
father did not abandon her years ago and has been trying to keep in
touch. She begins to investigate him, only to discover that he has a new
life with a new family, including the perfect stepdaughter, a girl who
Minerva despises.
My Thoughts:
Oh my goodness, so cute.
This
is the second Mary Amato book I've read. I'm officially a fan. She just
has this perfectly engaging way of letting readers into the lives of
her adorable, quirky characters. I seriously love her characters.
Minerva and Fin are hilarious and fun and I kind of wanted to hang out
with them. They said funny things all the time but dialogue never felt
awkward. I never even had to deal with an info dump! Yay for that. And
oh-my-goodness Hayes was so cute. Seriously, characters were So Great!!
Everyone had depth and feeling and likable-ness and I just loved them.
And Amato has a fantastic way of making her characters say the silliest
things in place of curse words ("Son-of-a-Biscuit!"), or just "cursing"
when they say bad words. Because a lot of people say bad words and I
think it is realistic to have them around but I don't actually want to
read them. So, thank you for that.
Something else I love about
this book was the actual plot. Minerva is a quirky girl living with her
single mother because her father abandoned them when Minerva was only 2
years old. Or did he? I love that this dealt with real issues but I
never felt like I was being preached to. Emotions just happened and no
one had to explain them because, like in life, we all just get it. Thank
you, Ms Amato for understanding that and treating your readers like
intelligent human beings. Appreciation is flowing your way.
I
will try to give a coherent review without giving anything away: I loved
who Minerva's mom and dad turned out to be. Amato took our perceptions
of those that leave vs. those that stay and flipped everything
completely upside down. I Love That!!! (!) And, man, did things get real
there for a while. I mean like, domestic disturbance type of real. But
it was so good. And so real. And so perfect. And I love that Amato went
against the grain while still making these characters so rounded. I
just--seriously, I could gush for hours. Love.
Another lovely
aspect of Amato's books is that they tend to have a strong musical
quality to them. Minerva plays the ukelele and she and her friends sing
and record music. There are song lyrics at the end of each chapter, too.
AND (!) at the back of the book it shows you how to play the songs. You
can even go listen to them, which is kind of awesome. I love all the
music stuff. Makes me happy.
One thing that kind of bothered me
was that I felt like it ended too quickly. It didn't end perfectly, and
I'm actually glad for that, but a lot of stuff was glossed over. I would
have liked a little more detail.
I love this book. You'll love
this book. It's completely clean and adorable and I'd be comfortable
recommending this to 12-year-olds. Maybe even younger. And definitely
older. Go read it!
Sexual Content: None
Language: None
Violence: None
Drugs/Alcohol: None
So clean!! I love it!!
I've never heard of that author, but both your thoughts and that cover are intriguing me. I'm a sucker for pretty covers, also books about music/with musician characters. You're swooning so much, why not five nuts?
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Jen @ thebookavid.blogspot.com