Tag / Georgia

by cholliman1

“My Jasper June” by Laurel Snyder

Image result for my jasper june"The Plot In 5 Sentences Or Less: The past year has been rough for Leah as her family deals with tragedy and her friendships are changing at school.  As the summer begins, she finds that she and her best friend Tess have drifted apart, leaving a hole in her life.  Luckily Leah soon meets a curly redhead girl her age named Jasper who is new in town.  The girls become instant best friends, but Leah discovers that Jasper’s life is full of  hurtful secrets. As each girl grapples with the broken parts of their lives, they realize that being a true friend is neither simple nor easy.

My Take:  This book convincingly portrays a friendship between two girls who are each grappling with pain.  The story is less of a thrill ride and more of an unfolding of the characters as the reader gets to know each of them.  I was most interested in the sense of co-dependency that forms within moments of the girls’ meeting.  Each senses in the other something that they are missing and that they desperately need and want. This urge is so powerful that at times they end up hurting the other person.  I knew from the start that the friendship between Leah and Jasper would not be smooth, but I definitely enjoyed the bumpy relationship between them.  Highly recommended to girls around the age of 11 – 13.

One Interesting Note About The Author: Ms. Snyder lives in Ormewood Park in Atlanta which is the setting for “My Jasper June.”

by cholliman1

‘The Ethan I Was Before’ by Ali Standish

ethan i was beforeThe Plot In Five Sentences Or Less:  Ethan and his family are moving from Boston to a small town in coastal Georgia, seeking a new start after a traumatic experience involving Ethan and his best friend Kacey.  As Ethan learns to adjust to his new settings and to try to make peace with the past, he makes a new friend in Coralee, a lively girl who helps Ethan settle into his new life.  But being friends with Coralee also brings its own complications, some that remind him of his painful experience with Kacey.  As Ethan and Coralee’s friendship deepens, they discover that the past has a way of resurfacing in painful ways.

My Take:  This was an excellent read and I can understand it’s inclusion on a lot of mock Newberry lists this year.  Ethan’s pain is convincing and as readers we are pulling for him to find some way to resolve his grief and find solace in his new relationships.   Standish does employ some well worn tropes (the mean girl, the bully, etc.) but none of that should bother younger readers.  I definitely recommend this to anyone looking for good realistic fiction about trying to make peace with the past.

One Interesting Note About The Author:  According to her website, when Ali Standish was young, she and her mother would play a story game.  Ali would give her three things (like blueberries, a panda bear, and a snowy forest, for example) and her mother would be challenged to create a story out of it.