By Holly Goldberg Sloan and Meg Wolitzer (Egmont)
‘…no one can tell you what is or isn’t a family.
Well, they can tell you, but you don’t have to listen and you shouldn’t listen. You need to only listen to your heart.’
This is a book that I picked up because of the title and cover, and have since fallen in love with. Which seems about right, seeing as it both starts and ends with love, and leads you on an emotional journey in between.
Avery Bloom and Bett Devlin are two twelve-year-old girls, who not only live almost 3,000 miles apart but are also as different as chalk and cheese. In fact, the only thing they seem to have in common is they are both only children living with their dads. And that is where the story, and the problems, start…can Avery and Bett’s dads really have met and fallen in love?
The story unfolds in emails and letters (the whole book is written in this style) from them and other characters. Here we learn more about the initial problem, their characters, their families and how they attempt to handle the situation they’re in when it’s the adults that are making the decisions. And seemingly not always the right ones!
A wonderful, uplifting book full of zany characters and people who don’t conform to society’s “norms”, trials, tribulations, families and unexpected friendships. The style of the book is somewhat reminiscent of older classics like ‘Feeling Sorry for Celia’ by Jaclyn Moriarty, while the story itself definitely takes a few cues from things like the movie ‘The Parent Trap’.
I loved the variously conventional and unconventional, laid-back and spiky, casual and a little uptight characters of the two girls, and am left wondering where life will finally take them. But there is one thing of which I have no doubt: wherever it is, they will be together.
Featuring love, friendship and summer camps, this is definitely a brilliant summer read!!
