Best Friends

Best Friends (Real Friends #2) Shannon Hale. Illustrated by LeUyen Pham. 2019. 256 pages. [Source: Library]

  First sentence: In summer, nothing ever seemed to change. The sky stayed blue. The air stayed warm. And friends stayed friends forever.

Premise/plot: I’m tempted to keep it simple and short and merely say Shannon Hale’s newest book should be required reading for humanity. It’s one of those meaning of life books. Those aren’t as common as you might believe. So what is this one about? It is the follow up to her previous graphic novel, Real Friends. Both books are inspired by her childhood. Both books are set in the mid-80s. This one covers her sixth grade year, 1985/86. But it does feature a few flashback sequences to earlier years. A young Shannon is trying to figure out the rules: rules about how to be liked, how to avoid being laughed at, how to make friends, how to keep friends, how to be true to yourself yet not so true as to be deemed a weirdo. Is there a way to stay popular/semi-popular and still be kind? Why does being kind require such bravery? Is lying ever justified?

Throughout it all, she’s also struggling with anxiety, panic attacks, and a bit of OCD. Whether you personally struggle with these exact mental health issues or not—I think the book is an honest and thought provoking way for readers to experience what it is like and perhaps gain a bit of empathy.

Who hasn’t struggled at one age or another with friends—making, keeping, forgiving friends. It can be a traumatic, troubling thing—some may struggle a year or two before finding their people, their crowd, where they actually belong; some may spend decades struggling to find “real” or “best” friends. This book keeps it real, keeps it honest, and stays ever-relevant.

My thoughts: I love, love, love this one so much. It is so honest at times that it stings when bringing up memories from the past—my past. I think no matter where you fit on the spectrum of popular or unpopular, bully or bullied, it will give you food for thought. I hope it is an empathy builder especially for children reading the book. The book is incredibly amazing. I loved the glimpse into Shannon’s past. This one will be hard to beat as a favorite of the year.

© 2019 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Stars Upon Thars #45

5 Stars
Enchanted Air. Margarita Engle. 2015. 192 pages. [Source: Library]
Miss Kopp's Midnight Confessions. (Kopp Sisters #3) Amy Stewart. 2017. 374 pages. [Source: Library]
You Are My Friend: The Story of Mister Rogers and His Neighborhood. Aimee Reid. Illustrated by Matt Phelan. 2019. Harry N. Abrams. 40 pages. [Source: Review copy]
I Will Race You Through This Book. Jonathan Fenske. 2019. 32 pages. [Source: Library]
Westering Women. Sandra Dallas. 2020 [January 7] 336 pages. [Source: Review copy]

4 Stars
Mr. Adam. Pat Frank. 1947. 184 pages. [Source: Library]

© 2019 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Westering Women

Westering Women. Sandra Dallas. 2020 [January 7] 336 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: Hidden beneath her black umbrella, Maggie stood in the shelter of the church and stared at the woman reading the broadsheet.

Premise/plot: Maggie is one of dozens of women signing up to travel west via wagon train to Goosetown, California, a mining town in 1852. The women will face challenges great and small along the way.

My thoughts: I loved, loved, loved, loved this one. I did. I requested a review copy because the title was close to one of my all-time favorite movies, Westward the Women. Those who know me well, know that I do not do westerns. I don't. I don't like them--never have, never will. But Westward the Women has long been an exception to the ALLERGIC TO WESTERNS rule. Dallas' novel imitates the movie in the best possible ways. I do not mean it in anyway as an insult to compare the two. 

I loved that the focus was on FRIENDSHIP and not particularly on romance. The characterization was incredibly well done. This book is authentic in a raw, gritty way. The lives these women led--both before joining up, during the trek west, and afterwards in California--were ROUGH. Maggie, one of our main heroines, has had a rough life. She's had to make some incredibly difficult decisions. As have some of the others. This isn't a book appropriate for younger readers (tweens and younger teens.) There are a couple of #metoo instances that while completely realistic and authentic make it an intense read. 

© 2019 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Mr. Adam

Mr. Adam. Pat Frank. 1947. 184 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: I suppose it is up to me to tell the story in its entirety, because I broke it in the first place, and I lived with it from then on, and I grew to know Mr. Adam. My name is Stephen Decatur Smith, and before I got involved in the most important story in the world I was a feature writer on the New York staff of AP.

Premise/plot: What if all the men in the world—minus one Homer Adam—were sterile?! Stephen Smith stumbles into a story with global implications. The lead he follows—there are no births scheduled after June 22 in New York City hospitals. Why? Is this true only in New York? Only in the North? Only in the U.S.? Only in the Northern hemisphere? Will any babies ever be conceived again? Is the human race doomed to die out? Many months go by, and then...a baby is born—a baby girl. Turns out that one man at least has not been effected by the nuclear disaster that has completely eradicated the state of Mississippi. His life will never be the same again. Everyone wants to own Mr. Adam and control him. Everyone wants to have a say in how the world is to be repopulated or populated. Not really differing in how—AI. Is artificial insemination the only hope for the human race?

My thoughts: Mr. Adam is a comedy written in 1946. Yes, it’s about a serious subject—the short term and long term effects of nuclear experimentation and use. Will the development of nuclear power and nuclear bombs lead to man’s extinction? Is sterilization a just consequence of man’s rashness or stupidity? At the time it was written, it was assumed that all women wanted to be mothers and that motherhood was the sole way women could lead satisfying or happy lives. Another assumption is that men don’t really care one way or another if they ever have children or not. Fatherhood is not that big a deal. Men don’t need babies in the same way that women do.

The novel is set in an unspecified future year. Frank probably could not have foreseen how AI would actually change the world giving barren couples hope. It was new and experimental, uncertain and controversial. Was it ethical? Should doctors and scientists be “playing God”? Wasn’t conception in God’s hands?

One thing is timeless about the novel—politics and politicians.

© 2019 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

World at War: Miss Kopp's Midnight Confessions

Miss Kopp's Midnight Confessions. (Kopp Sisters #3) Amy Stewart. 2017. 374 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: On the morning of her arrest, Edna Heustis awoke early and put her room in order.

Premise/plot: Miss Kopp’s Midnight Confessions is the third novel in Amy Stewart’s historical mystery series starring Constance Kopp. Kopp is kept busy in this one between her time as deputy sheriff, jail matron, and older sister. She becomes increasingly alarmed at several arrests of young women whose only crime is leaving home and living on their own—without their parents’ blessing. In the case of Edna, she’s over eighteen, working at a factory doing her part for the war, living in a respectable boarding house. Minnie Davis, on the other hand is under eighteen, living with a young man under the guise of being his wife. There is a phony marriage license. Though the stories are quite different, Constance feels for them both. Why should women be arrested for “immortality” but not the men? The real interest, however, comes in when she’s given an opportunity to practice what she preaches. Fleurette runs away to joins May Ward’s vaudeville troupe.

My thoughts: I missed Norma and Fleurette in the second novel. I did. So I was thrilled to see so much of them in this one. Kopp is not handling cases with dangerous, hardened criminals. Instead she is challenging the system. There’s a law in effect that is unjust or unfair. Kopp feels that if you are going to go after—arrest, send to trial, sentence, punish—immorality, then both parties not just the women should be targeted. To live on one’s own and work should not automatically be deemed immoral. Lives are being ruined because women often can’t hire a defense.

This one—out of the three I’ve read—has dealt most with the Great War. Edna is desperate to do something for the war effort. At first she thinks this means working in a factory. But then she hears about a project where women can go to France and volunteer for the Red Cross. It won’t be easy for Edna to get there, but her life has a new purpose.

The books still are based on true stories from the headlines.



© 2019 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews