I read about 100 books a year. This is not a humble brag. Reading
is an important part of my job--I want to be able to plan book clubs and recommend
books to people of all ages in my library. But reading so many books sometimes causes plot lines
to run together in my head.
For instance, earlier this year, I kept confusing Absolutely Truly by Heather Vogel
Frederick with The Secret Hum of a Daisy
by Tracy Holzer
The former mostly concerns a young girl named Truly whose
family has moved back to her mom’s small home town after her father was injured
in the military. Truly makes friends fast and comes to love the small town in
New Hampshire where they now live. When a mystery captures her attention, she
learns more about the town and her mother’s family’s history there. There’s not
a single sad note in this book. There are no dead moms. Truly’s family is busy
and close-knit. There’s even some dancing. And the family runs a book store!
What’s not to love?
In The Secret Hum of a
Daisy, a young girl named Grace must go live with her grandmother in
northern California after her mom suddenly dies. Grace has mixed feelings about
this because she thought her mom hated her grandmother (the truth is a big more
complicated, naturally). Driving the plot is a mysterious treasure hunt Grace
undertakes: She thinks her dead mother is leaving her signs to follow. In
following these “signs,” Grace, like Truly, learns more about the town and her
family. This book has a little more sorrow than Absolutely Truly. But I liked them both and recommend both (albeit
often to different kids).
More recently, I read two books that keep reminding me of
one another. Ana of California by
Andi Teran is a retelling of the Anne of
Green Gables story. Ana has problems keeping her mouth shut and has run out
of options regarding foster homes in Los Angeles. She’s nearly 16, so she’s
close to emancipation, but even that doesn’t leave her many choices. She gets
taken in by a brother and sister farmer in Northern California and learns to
love the hard work of the farm, her caregivers, her new friends, and everything
about her life. Central to the story is Ana’s artistic talents, which is
probably why when I was reading The
Education of Ivy Blake, by Ellen Airgood, I would think back to Ana.
Like Ana, Ivy keeps a sketch book with her at all times. Ivy is a sequel to Prairie Evers. In that story, Ivy gets taken in by the Evers family
when Ivy’s mom leaves her. In this book, Ivy’s mom is back, but she’s an
alcoholic and making really bad choices. Ivy tries to live with her, but in the
end, her mother proves incapable of, well, being a mom. In this story Ivy somewhat
benefits from the foster care system and from her ability to take care of
herself (even though she’s merely 11-years-old). Of course, the problems with
her mom and foster care slightly reminded me of One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt (great book! Read it!).
And given the time, I probably could make a list of books featuring kids in
foster care.
Making connections between things (and people) is my magic ability.
And it helps in this profession. So, even when books do run together in my
head, I’m usually able to get them straight when it comes time to recommend a
book. I actually recommend all seven of the books mentioned here. They feature
strong female characters that have a great deal of heart.
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