To Night Owl from Dogfish

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I still remember my Counting By 7s Newbery book group.  Those kids are sophomores in HS now.  And the Skype! Holly Goldberg Sloan was out on her veranda in Southern California and we were bundled in sweaters with snow outside our window. We all pinky sweared that if the movie ever came out from the book, we would go together.  That's my Holly history.  Loved her then and love her now.

Pair her up with Meg Wolitzer and here's a sweet story "to explain something."  What is that something? Friendship, family, theatre, camp, coming of age, adventure...a whole LOT of somethings.

12 year old Bett Devlin lives in California with her Dad.  Avery Bloom lives in NYC with her Dad.  Unbeknownest to the girls but their dads are dating.  When Sam and Marlow book a summer motorcycle trip around China, they send the girls to the same camp in Michigan.  Neither of the girls knows each other until Bett finds Avery's email and thus the online correspondence begins prior to the start of CIGI (Challenge Influence Guide Inspire).

Camp could be disastrous and the book could quickly go downhill from there. Yet with twists and turns, a "Lady Gaga" grandmother, a famous mother, Palindrome BOB, a collection of pressed flowers, Javier the dancer, and ultimately a wedding (I'm not saying whose), the complete cast of characters (with the help of Holly and Meg of course!) definitely "took lemons and made them into [gallons] of lemonade."

This book surprised me.  I could not stop reading.  What was going to happen next? I was SO rooting for the romance between Sam and Marlow and, for Avery and Bett, too, who Avery (Night Owl) so appropriately called it, the "Juliet and Juliet" of friendship. This book is like a modern day Judy Blume novel--first menses, middle school crushes, lip gloss, friendships, family. I liked it for its sweetness; its innocence; its vulnerability and just plain FUN.

P.S.

I just read this article in the New York Times today and it reminded me of Avery and Bett and how families come in all shapes and sizes.

What's a 'Normal' Family, Anyway?