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A review by maryehavens
Dear Sweet Pea by Julie Murphy
3.0
I love Julie Murphy's work. Maybe it's because she sets her stories in small town Texas, or her cute and quirky characters, or her pop-culture references or all of these things! I almost squeal every time I see a new work by her (and I definitely need to read her older works). Nothing will be better than Dumplin for me but I have enjoyed every other one of her books that I've read. They are nice little escapes, even though I live/lived in a small Texas town :)
This one, I would give 3.5 stars. It seemed a little overly complicated with Sweet Pea's relationships with her friends. I think it would have been a tiny bit better if Oscar and Sweet Pea had just naturally drifted away? Or if Sweet Pea had not hidden all the mail from her dad? I don't know - again, little tweaks and only my opinion.
I saw that this is written for ages 8-12 and I asked my husband what he thought about my daughter reading a book that centers around divorce, especially divorce "caused" by a parent's realization that they are gay. I'm not sure that that concept is something we want to introduce to our daughter. Mostly the concept of divorce and the disintegration of the family, even though Murphy creates a situation where the divorce is amicable and both parents are best friends and putting their daughter first. If my daughter was older, maybe it would be easier to understand. I don't want her to think that every time mom and dad have a fight over something stupid (the last one was how to clean the toaster), that they are headed for divorce. Especially now since we are in quarantine for Covid-19. We are 100% family all the time right now so we need to keep it as civil as possible :)
Overall, I love and look forward to all Murphy's works and I love that she has created this small town Texas universe that she keeps expanding!!
This one, I would give 3.5 stars. It seemed a little overly complicated with Sweet Pea's relationships with her friends. I think it would have been a tiny bit better if Oscar and Sweet Pea had just naturally drifted away? Or if Sweet Pea had not hidden all the mail from her dad? I don't know - again, little tweaks and only my opinion.
I saw that this is written for ages 8-12 and I asked my husband what he thought about my daughter reading a book that centers around divorce, especially divorce "caused" by a parent's realization that they are gay. I'm not sure that that concept is something we want to introduce to our daughter. Mostly the concept of divorce and the disintegration of the family, even though Murphy creates a situation where the divorce is amicable and both parents are best friends and putting their daughter first. If my daughter was older, maybe it would be easier to understand. I don't want her to think that every time mom and dad have a fight over something stupid (the last one was how to clean the toaster), that they are headed for divorce. Especially now since we are in quarantine for Covid-19. We are 100% family all the time right now so we need to keep it as civil as possible :)
Overall, I love and look forward to all Murphy's works and I love that she has created this small town Texas universe that she keeps expanding!!