Another great installment of The Mother-Daughter Book Club series!
When you get right down to it, this book is pretty much just "more of the same" - but in a good way. The book itself readily admits that Savannah Sinclair is basically like a Becca 2.0, but she's just different enough to make the story line seem new. Again, each of the teenage book club members - now in 8th grade - has her own problems, and most middle school readers will probably relate to some part of the book in some way.
I really like the general tone of these books. The girls get along with their parents. They struggle with typical teenage problems and are able to deal with them. Sometimes they learn to accept things as they are, and sometimes they learn to stand up and take action. Sometimes they make poor decisions, but when they do, they are always called to account for them. There's a nice "take your time with relationships, don't rush" message, and friendships, of course, are meaningful.
Most intriguing, for me, was the book the club was reading - Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster. I had never heard of it!! The book discussions and quotes have certainly piqued my interest, and I've added it to my to-read list. In fact, one quote in particular really resonated with me, and I keep coming back to it: "It isn't the big troubles in life that require character. Anybody can rise to a crisis and face a crushing tragedy with courage, but to meet the petty hazards of the day with a laugh - I really think that requires spirit." (Pg. 95)
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but I still found myself giving it just shy of 5 stars. The Chadwicks are now official members of the book club, but why doesn't Becca narrate any chapters? Anyway, many of the chapters got so into describing general events that they lost the first-person perspective; they read more like third-person narratives, and only when an "I" statement was thrown in did I remember that everything I was reading was supposed to be the perspective of just one of the girls. Also, there's just a lot going on in this book. Lots of new characters, pen pals, and of course, the over-the-top climax at the end.
Oh, and as a Massachusetts native, I was just a bit irked by a factual inaccuracy. At one point, Jess explained that Colonial Academy had a different vacation schedule from Concord public schools - a week of vacation in February and another week off in the spring. Yet, in reality, that is exactly the same vacation schedule as most (if not all) public schools in MA! Of course, as a book of fiction, it doesn't really matter, but it's always nice when books gets local details right.
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