Book reviews of YA lit and more

As a middle school librarian and hopeful reader of Missouri's high school award books (Gateway nominees), I am reading and reviewing as many young adult and middle grade novels as I can while working on my own writing for this age group.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Faith, Hope, and Ivy June

I have moved on to reading more middle grade novels, so this on again is for that 4th-6th grade age group.  Ivy June and Catherine are both from Kentucky, but they might as well be from different planets.  Catherine lives in Lexington in a very large house in a very nice neighborhood.  She attend the same private school her mother attended as a girl.  She has every opportunity in life and does not want for much. Ivy June is from the Thunder Creek, an area in the Kentucky mountains where they have no phone service, you have to hike to get to the house, and they still use an outhouse.  Ivy June lives up the mountain from her parents in her grandparents house where there is a little more room, and they talk her into doing an ambassador program with Catherine's school.  Ivy June then spends two weeks in Lexington with Catherine, and Catherine spends two weeks living in the mountains with Ivy June.  Both girls write journal entries that are spliced in throughout the book.  They learn about their differences, but more importantly they learn how similar they are through some stressful family moments.  The message in this book is great, and the girls are sweet characters.  I do not see many boys picking up this book, but I can imagine a handful of girls that I would recommend it to.

No comments:

Post a Comment