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mrskatiefitz's review
4.0
This 1984 Apple Paperback is the story of DeDe Rawson, whose parents have been divorced for a year. Her mother, now single, must work a job that requires odd and unpredictable hours, and her father, who lives in an apartment lets his answering machine pick up all his calls, so that DeDe is forced to leave messages for him. As the book goes on, DeDe must deal with her mother's weight gain, and her efforts to lose it, deciding what to buy her parents for their respective birthdays, and the unnerving quiet of Thanksgiving with just one parent in the house. She tries to take charge, but with all the push and pull between households, and the knowledge that being with one parent always means being without the other, it's not easy!
DeDe is the best friend of another Johanna Hurwitz character, Aldo Sossi, who stars in many of his own books, including Much Ado About Aldo (1978), Aldo Applesauce (1979), Aldo Ice Cream (1981), and Aldo Peanut Butter (1990). He and his family make appearances in this book, mainly to give DeDe moral support, and to serve as a foil for DeDe's family so the reader understands how different DeDe feels from her classmates. From what I have gathered from Google and Amazon, DeDe also appears in the Aldo books, but I think this is the only book where she is the star.
DeDe Takes Charge! did not have as many of the charming dated references as the first couple of books I reviewed for Old School Sunday, but it was dated in a different way. What really struck me as odd, more than anything else, was the characters' attitudes about divorce. Though DeDe's mother recognizes that more than half of marriages end in divorce, there is still an element of shame attached to the idea that isn't really present in 21st century books on the topic, or in 21st century life. I was especially taken aback by the fact that Mrs. Rawson actually offers to stay home from DeDe's play if her ex-husband attends so that she not be embarrassed by having her divorced parents in the same room. In a society where, nowadays, parents often remain friends after divorce, these concerns seem preposterous. Of course a child should be able to see both her parents at school events! The book just seemed overly preoccupied with the perils of divorced life.
Otherwise, though, this book still felt quite contemporary. Johanna Hurwitz makes the everyday interesting, and she clearly understands what makes kids tick, both then and now. The School Library Journal review on the back cover of the book compares Hurwitz's writing to Beverly Cleary's, and I think the comparison is apt. Unlike Beverly Cleary's books, however, most of Hurwitz's books are now out of print.
Also of note: The book's illustrations were done by Diane Degroat, who also illustrated Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry, and now also writes and illustrates picture books about an opossum named Gilbert. The illustrations in this book are probably the most dated thing about it. DeDe's mom's hair is especially 80's, as are her clothes in some pictures. Good stuff.
DeDe is the best friend of another Johanna Hurwitz character, Aldo Sossi, who stars in many of his own books, including Much Ado About Aldo (1978), Aldo Applesauce (1979), Aldo Ice Cream (1981), and Aldo Peanut Butter (1990). He and his family make appearances in this book, mainly to give DeDe moral support, and to serve as a foil for DeDe's family so the reader understands how different DeDe feels from her classmates. From what I have gathered from Google and Amazon, DeDe also appears in the Aldo books, but I think this is the only book where she is the star.
DeDe Takes Charge! did not have as many of the charming dated references as the first couple of books I reviewed for Old School Sunday, but it was dated in a different way. What really struck me as odd, more than anything else, was the characters' attitudes about divorce. Though DeDe's mother recognizes that more than half of marriages end in divorce, there is still an element of shame attached to the idea that isn't really present in 21st century books on the topic, or in 21st century life. I was especially taken aback by the fact that Mrs. Rawson actually offers to stay home from DeDe's play if her ex-husband attends so that she not be embarrassed by having her divorced parents in the same room. In a society where, nowadays, parents often remain friends after divorce, these concerns seem preposterous. Of course a child should be able to see both her parents at school events! The book just seemed overly preoccupied with the perils of divorced life.
Otherwise, though, this book still felt quite contemporary. Johanna Hurwitz makes the everyday interesting, and she clearly understands what makes kids tick, both then and now. The School Library Journal review on the back cover of the book compares Hurwitz's writing to Beverly Cleary's, and I think the comparison is apt. Unlike Beverly Cleary's books, however, most of Hurwitz's books are now out of print.
Also of note: The book's illustrations were done by Diane Degroat, who also illustrated Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry, and now also writes and illustrates picture books about an opossum named Gilbert. The illustrations in this book are probably the most dated thing about it. DeDe's mom's hair is especially 80's, as are her clothes in some pictures. Good stuff.
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