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Summary
Summary
Evyn's had enough problems in her life, starting with her mother's death when she was young. But now her father's thrown a whole new batch her way. Not only is he marrying a woman Evyn hardly knows, but he's uprooting Evyn and her brother to go live with this woman and her children. It's a lot of adjustment to make at once. And, quite frankly, Evyn has no desire to adjust. She wants her old life, her old friends, and her old house. She knows she's supposed to bounce along with the changes...but what happens if she doesn't? With her trademark knowledge of what it's like to be a girl, Natasha Friend gives us the insightful, heartfelt story of a girl who must learn how to manage her life...even when so many things are beyond her control.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 6-8-At her 13th-birthday dinner, Evyn's hippie father, Birdie, drops a bomb. He is going to marry Eleni Gartos, a college professor with six children, and Evyn and her 15-year-old brother will be leaving their home in Maine and moving to Boston with him. Evyn feels that her world has collapsed, while Mackey just asks to have two desserts. Feeling alone, the girl begins a dialogue with her dead mother as she imagines her. Friend captures the emotions and angst of a teen on the brink of womanhood thrust into a large, vocal stepfamily while having to share her father with a woman she hardly knows and a house full of stepsiblings. Throughout her ups and downs, Birdie's love remains constant, her stepsiblings are accepting, and her brother is transforming himself from a nerdy computer geek into a fledgling thespian. When her stepmother becomes pregnant, Evyn sets out to hop a bus to Maine. The beginnings of acceptance and possibilities are ignited as she learns to follow her inner "wise woman"-her mother's advice-and to "bounce" with the changes in her life. Friend offers no fairy-tale ending but presents, through hip conversations and humor, believable characters and a feel-good story with a satisfying amount of pathos.-D. Maria LaRocco, Cuyahoga Public Library, Strongsville, OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Shortly after her widower father announces he is remarrying, 13-year-old Evyn and her older brother move with him from their house in Maine to the Boston brownstone of their soon-to-be stepmother and six stepsiblings. For solace, Evyn confides in her dead mother, who died when Evyn was a baby, even though she admits she is really just talking to herself; in these conversations her mother advises her to let the bad stuff "bounce" off her, but it's hard. Evyn misses her best friend-who seems to have moved on very quickly, acquiring a new best friend and boyfriend-and she hates both her too-eager stepmother and her private girls' school, where she becomes a target of the popular clique. Friend (Lush) throws in plenty of plot lines, including Evyn's crush on her oldest stepbrother and her belated discovery that the school's mean It girl is constantly criticized by her mother; some of these developments feel more convenient than organic. But the author has an unmistakable gift for exploring family dynamics, and even though Evyn doesn't immediately understand such exchanges as the constant bickering of the twins whose bedroom she shares, they will be instantly recognizable to many readers. The tender scenes have a genuine poignancy, as when Evyn and her dad share a heart-to-heart in the middle of night, or when Evyn's stepmother tells her about her own mother's death. In the end, these moving moments make for a story that's both real and heartfelt. Ages 12-up. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Since childhood, 13-year-old Evyn Linney has been wishing for one thing: a mother. However, when her widowed father announces that he's remarrying and they're relocating from Maine to Boston, Evyn isn't thrilled, especially when she pieces together that moving in with her new mother, Eleni Gartos, means living with six new siblings. Although this text features the typical predictable horrors of moving, including leaving behind a best friend and the awkwardness of fitting in at a new school, the realistic and genuinely humorous details of the newly formed Linney-Gartos family sets this text apart. Also providing a slightly different angle is Evyn's "relationship" with her deceased birthmother, Stella, who visits her with motherly advice, including the suggestion that Evyn simply let trouble "bounce" off her. These supernatural conversations are at first difficult to swallow, but they reveal much about Evyn, especially as she explores her deeper reasons for wanting to reject her new family. Earnest and funny. (Fiction. YA) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Being 13 is tough, but Evyn's life is further complicated by her father's marriage to a woman with six children and an announcement that another child is on the way. Evyn must also adjust to a new all-girls school, where girls in headbands run the show. Evyn's well-meaning father, stoic brother, and stepsiblings are great characters, especially her bickering older sisters; Ajax (nicknamed Cleanser Boy); and sexy, college-age Linus. When Evyn manages to find alone time in her crazy house, she imagines conversations with her dead mother, from whom she asks advice. Her mother tells her that she should let bad things bounce off her but knowing what she needs to do and doing it are very different things. Friend gives Evyn an authentic teen voice and emotions, at the same time providing a satisfying blend of humor and empathy that will strike a particular chord with readers coping with their own friendship and blended-family troubles.--Dobrez, Cindy Copyright 2007 Booklist