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A review by ncrabb
I Love You, Michael Collins by Lauren Baratz-Logsted
5.0
My memories of Apollo 11 are so vivid all these years later. I've spent the 50h anniversary year reading histories and listening to podcasts that focused on the first moon landing. When my daughter recommended the book to me, I knew I had to find it somehow. It's one of the best middle-grade books I've read in a long time.
Mamie is one day away from the start of the 1969 summer vacation. She has been handed the final assignment of the year. She is hours away from all the freedom and unstructured play that a late 1960s summer promised; just one assignment stood between her and a summer full of fun with her neighbor and friend, Buster, whose real name we never learn.
The assignment: Write a letter to one of the three Apollo 11 astronauts. All the girls in the class except Mamie picked Neal Armstrong; the boys all chose Buzz Aldrin because he was cool and had a cool name. Mamie was the only one in the class who chose Michael Collins, the sometimes-lonely astronaut whose solitary job was to keep the main module on target. She wrote her letter, and as the summer progressed and the date of the historic launch grew near, she kept writing. These letters to the unsung hero spaceman were Mamie's way of expressing herself--or telling someone, anyone, about the changes going on in her personal world.
This book brought cheers and occasional tears. My only wrinkle with it is that Mamie describes herself as a slow reader. I wondered whether someone with her vocabulary and advanced understanding of people and thins could be a slow reader, but I'm no expert.
These letters are filled with a kind of child-like innocence, and yet they are very much a reflection of the time. Mamie tells Michael Collins in her letters that her parents seem to be having some kind of marital discord; (she calls them "discussions".) That discord erupts in full the night her dad refuses to attend a moon launch party her mom had planned. Always yearning for a bigger broader life beyond the walls of her house, Mamie's mom walks out on the family one night during dinner. Days later, Dad leaves home to find Mom and try to fix things. Mamie is alone with a self-centered older sister who, in late-60s typical teenage fashion, sleeps until noon and spends most of her waking hours with a boyfriend. Mamie's oldest sister has moved out of the house, something that caused no small controversy for that family in that day and time. At some point, it is Mamie who is left to figuratively guide the family ship. She and Michael Collins have a great deal in common.
The author uses period details wonderfully well. She tells of writing phone numbers on the side of the phone. She points out that those of us who were Mamie's age in 1969 were expected to play outside, and there weren't a lot of strictures on where we could play or how far from the house we went.
She recreates vividly the launch and landing. Reading Mamie's description of the event brought it back to me with real force and clarity. I was comforted, too, by the idea that some things haven't changed all that much. You can still buy Fruit Loops and Tang, for example.
It takes talent to create a book based on letters, and the author demonstrates her excellence by pulling this off nicely.
Amy Melissa Bentley's narration was magnificent--even better than that. She brought child-like wonder to the book--a kind of innocence and sophistication all at once. Nothing is over the top where this narration is concerned. Bentley has one of those lovely ageless voices, and her pace and cadence is such that she can effortlessly transport you back to 1969 or anywhere else she wants you to go. They simply couldn't have found a better match for a narrator of this book. It was already an excellent book; Amy Melissa Bentley made it even better.
Mamie is one day away from the start of the 1969 summer vacation. She has been handed the final assignment of the year. She is hours away from all the freedom and unstructured play that a late 1960s summer promised; just one assignment stood between her and a summer full of fun with her neighbor and friend, Buster, whose real name we never learn.
The assignment: Write a letter to one of the three Apollo 11 astronauts. All the girls in the class except Mamie picked Neal Armstrong; the boys all chose Buzz Aldrin because he was cool and had a cool name. Mamie was the only one in the class who chose Michael Collins, the sometimes-lonely astronaut whose solitary job was to keep the main module on target. She wrote her letter, and as the summer progressed and the date of the historic launch grew near, she kept writing. These letters to the unsung hero spaceman were Mamie's way of expressing herself--or telling someone, anyone, about the changes going on in her personal world.
This book brought cheers and occasional tears. My only wrinkle with it is that Mamie describes herself as a slow reader. I wondered whether someone with her vocabulary and advanced understanding of people and thins could be a slow reader, but I'm no expert.
These letters are filled with a kind of child-like innocence, and yet they are very much a reflection of the time. Mamie tells Michael Collins in her letters that her parents seem to be having some kind of marital discord; (she calls them "discussions".) That discord erupts in full the night her dad refuses to attend a moon launch party her mom had planned. Always yearning for a bigger broader life beyond the walls of her house, Mamie's mom walks out on the family one night during dinner. Days later, Dad leaves home to find Mom and try to fix things. Mamie is alone with a self-centered older sister who, in late-60s typical teenage fashion, sleeps until noon and spends most of her waking hours with a boyfriend. Mamie's oldest sister has moved out of the house, something that caused no small controversy for that family in that day and time. At some point, it is Mamie who is left to figuratively guide the family ship. She and Michael Collins have a great deal in common.
The author uses period details wonderfully well. She tells of writing phone numbers on the side of the phone. She points out that those of us who were Mamie's age in 1969 were expected to play outside, and there weren't a lot of strictures on where we could play or how far from the house we went.
She recreates vividly the launch and landing. Reading Mamie's description of the event brought it back to me with real force and clarity. I was comforted, too, by the idea that some things haven't changed all that much. You can still buy Fruit Loops and Tang, for example.
It takes talent to create a book based on letters, and the author demonstrates her excellence by pulling this off nicely.
Amy Melissa Bentley's narration was magnificent--even better than that. She brought child-like wonder to the book--a kind of innocence and sophistication all at once. Nothing is over the top where this narration is concerned. Bentley has one of those lovely ageless voices, and her pace and cadence is such that she can effortlessly transport you back to 1969 or anywhere else she wants you to go. They simply couldn't have found a better match for a narrator of this book. It was already an excellent book; Amy Melissa Bentley made it even better.