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k8tiger 's review for:
Absolutely Truly
by Heather Vogel Frederick
This is a sweet story with a good mystery, fun characters, and poignant insights into the life of a tween admist physical and emotional upheaval. Truly Lovejoy is the middle child in a large miliatary family. Her family is getting ready to settle down after her dad's retirement in Texas when an injury during his last tour of duty in Afghanistan costs him his post-Army job as a college wrestling coach. Truly's family is uprooted again to her dad's hometown of Pumpkin Falls, NH to save her grandparent's failing bookstore. A little mystery concerning Charlotte's Web, Shakespeare and the town's cast of characters ensues. Technically, this book is a mystery but Truly is in the middle of so much turmoil that it can't help but be a coming-of-age story as well. Though Frederick deals with her father's injuries in a direct manner, she's so skillful at creating a tween narrator in Truly that readers only see things from Truly's perspective as each Lovejoy readjusts to life in the civilian world.
Truly's character is a delight and a rarity in the middle grade/YA world. She's awkward and funny enough to be believable as a tween but she's not outrageous! Her parents don't allow her to sasss them back and the adults in her life have reasonable and firm expectations of her without being overly moralistic. Not a common occurance for most literary representations of family for this age group. The plot moves along nicely and the author has said this will be the start of a new series! Yay!
Truly's character is a delight and a rarity in the middle grade/YA world. She's awkward and funny enough to be believable as a tween but she's not outrageous! Her parents don't allow her to sasss them back and the adults in her life have reasonable and firm expectations of her without being overly moralistic. Not a common occurance for most literary representations of family for this age group. The plot moves along nicely and the author has said this will be the start of a new series! Yay!