An Eccentric millionaire wants to be reunited with all his estranged children at Christmastime. Oh boy, what wacky family, hi-jinks are going to ensue? What shenanigans you got planned, old man? old man? oh, he’s dead.
(more…)Tag: book-reviews
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Meet Julie
No turning back now Author: Megan McDonald
It’s the 1970s. Bust out your mood rings and pet rocks!
The American Girl series is starting to feel more decades day at school and less about American history. Yes, it is important to remember that recent history is still history for kids, but it’s not like Julie’s mood ring is something kids would never see today. Heck, kids today still see fights about who gets to play on the gendered sports teams… it just looks different in 2025.
Julie’s personality
We are introduced to Julie as she is doing cartwheels. She is spinning, her life is turing upside-down. Like the other American Girl introductions this is Julie’s theme: Jukie is tumbling through the world looking for the right way up. Julie is struggling for identity. She doesn’t even know her favorite color!
Julie’s parent’s just got divorced, she’s moving and starting a new school, it’s the 1970s! Any of those alone can shake up your self-image, and Julie has to deal with all of it. She is very unsure of who she is and where she belongs in the world. Julie is also a Gen Xer, so not feeling like she belongs is to be expected.
Julie’s Family
Julie’s Mom is introduced to us taking down a hanging geranium plant. Geraniums symbolize folly. Is this telling us that the marriage was folly, or that Mom is a foolish person?
I like the representation of Julie’s parents. Something that bothers me in children’s media is when divorced parents are so united that you have to wonder why it didn’t work out… It’s very clear why Julie’s parents are divorced. Her dad is a straight laced kind of guy, her mom is a hippie. I get why it didn’t work out.
Basketball
So I did the math, Julie would have been born in 1965, and according to the generally accepted generation breakdowns, that is the very first birth year of Gen X. Like most Gen Xers, Julie is a latch-key kid. Julie takes up basketball as a way of avoiding the empty house. Julie’s fight to get on the basketball team feels very Gen X, she refuses to blindly trust authority figures, and she questions everything.
I think the school should have started a girl’s basketball team. Julie being the ONLY girl on the team is going to cause her social problems. She can’t bond with her teammates in the locker room, and she will be ostracised by the other girls. The other girls will be jealous that Julie found a way to stand out, and being yourself and standing out is not how you make friends as a pubescent girl. Yeah, girls are like that.
Best Friends
Speaking of girls why did Ivy apologize? She just didn’t want to spend her whole Saturday getting signatures for Julie’s petition. Julie never asked Ivy to help her, she just blindly assumed Ivy would. Poor Ivy was dragged around the streets of San Francisco, and her best friend Julie was completely clueless about Ivy’s obvious discomfort… I seriously want to know why Ivy owes Julie an apology.
All in all Julie is a fun character, but you can start to see the cracks in the original American Girl concept starting to form: it’s not like Julie is wearing a shift and stays, she wears blue jeans and tanktops, the cut and colors might be different, but kids still see those cloths today. Julie’s world just isn’t so different from the world today that tactile play (dolls) will help kids understand it.
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Meet Kit
It’s not fair This is my first time reading about Kit, so I find myself focusing more on the parents… I have thoughts, but first let’s talk about Kit herself:
Kit’s personality
Kit is introduced writing a “newspaper” for her dad. This is the least relatable intro of the American Girls in my mind.
Kit is a tomboy. Kit aspires to be a reporter… but she’s the last to learn the really important things. She’s obnoxiously judgmental about people, especially Stirling.
Kit’s parents
I hate Kit’s parents! The other girl’s parents were mostly mature, loving, caring people. Kit’s parents have unresolved issues and it is compromising Kit’s well being. Kit’s dad didn’t tell his family that their business was in trouble until the day before he closed the business! He let his wife go on spending money on things like redecorating Kit’s room, and spent his son’s college money while letting him think he was going to college. He didn’t even give his son the chance to earn the money for college on his own! Kit’s parents are making awful financial decisions.
I just don’t like how Kit’s mom doesn’t seam to care about her daughter’s personality or how Dad is keeping secrets. Kit and her brother Charlie deserve more consideration.
I’m a Millennial: massive layoffs, stockmarket drama, people tricked into buying homes they can’t afford… I don’t have to imagine this stuff, it’s the only world I’ve known! I don’t have to stretch my imagination very far to put myself in thier place, and I don’t like them.
Next up: Meet Julie
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Spoiler-Free Review: Magpie Murders
“you can’t beat a good whodunnit” Author: Anthony Horowitz
Alan Conway’s new murder mystery novel is finally finished! Editor, Susan Ryeland sits down to read Conway’s magnum opus… and hits a brick wall, when she discovers that the last chapter is missing!
That’s right, after this book gets you all snuggled into an Agatha Christie style cozy murder mystery, it pulls the rug out from under you and throws you into a completely new mystery as editor Susan Ryeland tries to find the missing chapters, and finds herself caught up in a gripping modern thriller.
I liked this book. I liked the wraparound plot. If you like cozy murder mysteries with an edge you are going to like this book. Horowitz has a way of pulling some great plot twists. It’s always a thrill to read one of his novels, and this doesn’t disappoint.
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Spoiler-Free Review: Where The Crawdads Sing
“Just like their whiskey, the marsh dwellers bootlegged their own laws” Author: Delia Owens
Chase Andrews fell from the old fire tower… or was he pushed? As the sheriff investigates the strange death, he discovers a connection between the local girl “Marsh Girl” and Chase. No one knows the marsh better than Kya, the “Marsh Girl,” but does she know it well enough to kill a man without leaving a trace? Will Kya be locked up for murder? or will she stay in the marsh she loves, free and wild, where the crawdads sing?
Kya is a very nice change of pace from the super competent female protagonist of many novels you get these days. Kya is a character living with trauma. She both craves and fears human connection. She wants to love and be loved, but her life experience has taught her that other people will only hurt and abandon her.
Kya’s was abused/neglected/ abandoned by her whole family. Pa was abusive, Ma walked out, and her older siblings ran away from home. While Pa was good to Kya sometimes, he never cared enough to take her to school, buy her shoes, or teach her to read. Then one day, he went out drinking and never came home.
Kya is a lot like a wild animal, acting on instinct and withdrawing in fear. It’s exactly what a child who raised themselves would be like.
The murder mystery was the weakest part for me. I knew the truth of how Chase died VERY early on in the story. I don’t think the murder mystery was intended to be the point. It’s Kya’s story, and the mystery was a narrative device to drive the plot forward.
There is a reason this book was so popular and it was quickly turned into a movie. Owens knocked it out of the park with her first novel! It is well worth the read.
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