Everything that I love most about reading is embodied in the novels of Ann M. Martin. She has become the master of the simple story, the type of tale made beautiful not by flashy language and shocking twists, but by the way it mimics the rhythms of real life with such haunting and undeniable truth. You're never going to see a pat ending to any of Ann M. Martin's novels, no feel-good finish contrived as a way of slapping on a happy end just to set the reader's mind at ease. I don't believe that Ann M. Martin would ever cheat her readers by fashioning such a plastic conclusion to any of her stand-alone books. Anything can happen in those final pages as we learn the fate of the characters in whom we have become so invested, and therefore any happiness that they gain by the end of the story feels more real and more valuable than any pleasure attainable through a happy ending that just doesn't feel authentic. In America of 1963, our nation was poised to run up against another major tragedy, in the same mold as those we endured when presidents Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield and William McKinley were assassinated during their respective administrations. On November 22 of '63, president John F. Kennedy, like those three predecessors to his office, would take a bullet to his head, and it would be the end of a legendary era in U.S. politics. Before that day, though, no one knew that anything was wrong. The tragedy headed our way was still not even a thought in the minds of most Americans. And so it is for Ellie Dingman, living with her parents and younger siblings in the quiet suburban town of Spectacle, New York in 1963. Her neighbors are the most real, most average, yet most wonderful people you would ever want to meet and spend your time getting to know better. Honestly, I felt twinges of envy for Ellie's position among them, centered as she was with such genuine people living around her, people that I would love to grow up around and have as my neighbors and friends in times good and bad. As is the case for the story itself, I believe it is how real these people are that makes reading about them an experience capable of stirring up those kinds of lingering feelings. It's that they are flawed and they get in arguments (even between Ellie and her best friend, Holly) and bad things happen to them in varying shades of awful and not everyone on the block is even a good person, but that again simply shows the way that real life goes. Not everyone in any community will ever be good, but that doesn't mean one should dispose of the community. Even as an imperfect thing, broken around the edges and not whole in many respects, harboring some broken hearts and broken minds in its midst, that community can still be a wonderful, beautiful thing, worth saving and worth holding onto because its people are still capable of so much good, even considering their brokenness. And so Ellie enters sixth grade alongside her friend Holly, and the trouble begins for her both in school and at home. The Sparrows, a group of three (now four) popular girls who have always banded together to ridicule Ellie, Holly and anyone else less socially inclined than themselves, are at it worse than ever. Ellie's teacher may look like Jimmie Dodd of Mouseketeers fame (Yay! How can you not like Jimmie Dodd?), but unfortunately he can't keep the Sparrows from branching out into crueler tricks than ever, and with the addition of the new Sparrow leader, Ellie and Holly are more at risk than they've ever been in years past. The new girl's horrible games to get at Ellie and Holly make going to school a nightmarish experience for them, until the national tragedy strikes like a blasting comet of white heat and cosmic fallout; however, even the sudden shock of the president's death can't permanently change the hearts of four girls who haven't learned what it means to really care about a person and respect their humanity. And so the hurting continues for Ellie and Holly, with no end to the Sparrows' attacks in sight. While Ellie's school situation is deteriorating, it turns out that so is her family life, though no one yet has any cause to suspect such a thing. Ellie's mother has been infatuated with the idea of fame for most of her life, either earned on the Broadway stage or as a star of the screen, but her taste for the limelight really begins to grow as she has a few modest success in the show business arena, and starts to believe that perhaps she really does have what it takes to hit it big. Her penchant for the life of a star leads her to begin drifting away from her family, and Ellie and her young siblings grow increasingly confused about what is happening in their lives. It's not too long before their mother is inaccessible to them entirely, and Ellie is left as the closest thing to a mother figure that her brothers and sisters have left to soothe for them the sting of the bleeding wound. Oh, that she would not have to be both sister and mother to children in need of more than just a stopgap substitute, earnest in her efforts as she may be... Everything in her life seems to be going wrong, but this is the life Ellie has been given, and despite her own deep sadness there is nothing for her but to move forward anyway and learn again how to cope as things change rapidly and people come and go in her life, and perhaps come back again. It's like a flickering switchboard of colored lights popping up and around at seeming random, all shifting so quickly that it's hard to get a read on what it all really means, but Ellie has a better handle on it than most. After all, she fits in well with the other people on her street who all live life with love and enthusiasm and patience for their families even when it's not easy to fill any of those traits, and Ellie can do the same as she waits for the bad things that have happened to maybe take a turn for the better. And as she does, she sees that though she can't control the behavior of people around her who make bad choices and travel down paths that ultimately will lead to nowhere, she can control her response to the challenges created by those bad choices, and help her family and everyone she loves to adjust, as well. Real love seems to have the power to tie up loose ends, albeit imperfectly. Simply to say that I loved this book would be an understatement. Here Today is a story that got inside of me much deeper than that. It got under my soul and into so many of the hidden emotional places that I'd temporarily forgotten, reaffirming in my mind lessons of life that I may have already understood, but hadn't felt this deeply in a long while. When you take a copy of this book in your hands, you're holding a piece of real life, as real as if Ellie and its other characters had lived just as their lives are written in the story. Because while the details may be fiction, every ounce of emotion and thought that the book offers is completely real, and it's that honest emotion that affects us so deeply through the characters as we read, giving us the gift of seeing these lessons as if for the first time because we are experiencing them anew through the lives of such genuine people, people as real and nuanced as anyone we come in contact with in our own lives. And their story relights hope within us that we don't have to hit the mark of perfection in order to be happy; maybe, as Ellie observes, we can still be happy being a little bit broken from the ordeals we've survived. These days, I'm really coming to see the writing of Ann M. Martin for the incredible gift to the world of literature that it is. She has written some enduring book series (The Baby-Sitters Club, Baby-Sitters Little Sister, The Kids in Ms. Coleman's Class, etc.) that have charmed the imaginations of readers for decades, but it is in her novels that her ability as an author has truly found its zenith, and Here Today may be her best one yet. It is a masterful contribution to the genre of children's stories, and I give it at least three and a half stars.
“Here Today,” by Ann M. Martin is about Ellie, who has a mom who desperately wanted to be a famous actress and one little sister and little brother to take care of. The setting is a small town of the Spectacle, New York in 1963, when President Kennedy was assassinated. That was when Doris Dingman, Ellie’s mother, was crowned the Bosetti Beauty of Spectacle and got the idea to become a famous actress.tThe story mostly shows about Doris’s character. In many different pages showed me that Doris is really selfish and doesn’t think or consider about other people, including her family. There are many episodes that show her selfishness, but I would choose three to talk about.Ellie and her siblings didn’t have their lunch nor dinner because Doris left her children from one o’clock in the afternoon and came back later than nine o’clock.Doris came to Ellie’s school, picked up her in the middle of the class without warning, and drop them at their grandparents’ house, just because she had a small audition in another city.Doris left her children in Spectacle and went to New York City by herself for more than three months. She didn’t call to her house, even on Marie’s birthday (Ellie’s younger sister)tThese three main events really showed me that how Ellie worked hard to fill Doris’s empty space. However, she also had a hard time at school. One day, Tammy, one of the most popular girls at the school, called Ellie to make her “slam” Holly, Ellie’s best friend. This “slam” is like bullying. There’s one target and everybody can slam the target as hard as they can, so the target gets hurt. Obviously, Ellie didn’t accept Tammy’s plan and that led every other classmates to slam “both” Holly and Ellie.tFrom this episode, I could relate to Ellie as a middle schooler. Ellie could have told this situation to her parents, homeroom teacher, or even principal, but she never did because she knew that if she did and Tammy got in trouble, the problem could be worse. This shows me that Ellie can think not only for the present, but also the future. To see this in adults’ perspective, it seems like Ellie made a wrong decision, but I, one of the middle schoolers, think that she made a pretty wise decision. There’s always a revenge when you say these things to adults, which will make the bullying worse.tAs I was reading a book, I found out that the book covers some main historical events, such as the death of President Kennedy and some serious social issues, like bullying and the indifference of “some” adults to children. Also, “Here Today,” by Ann M. Martin, showed really good characters’ development and characters’ motivation. Perhaps I could learn those skills from the book and apply to my own writing someday.
What do You think about Here Today (2006)?
Well, I have to say that i am really impressed with this book.There is no specific one plot. I like that. It's just about a girl in 1963. It's really good. I love the characters, too. They are so richly woven. The mother is a loser who is self centered. The father is trying to stay calm. Ellie is trying to save her social life and take care of her sibilings.I really liked ellie's character. she goes with the flow when neccessary, but she sticks up for her friend. she tries to help keep her family together. she tries to be a mom like character for her sibilings. i think that if everybody was like ellie, the world would be perfect.ann m martin did a really good job writing this book. it was colorful and i always wanted to read it. she's a great writer. she creates a clear picture, and being an eleven year old girl, she did a good jobs of making this girl think and act like an eleven year old girl.theres nothing more to say.**if you want to read another good ann m martin book read a corner of the univers, ps longer letter later, snail mail no more and the doll house people**
—Maureen
I thought that this book was almost like Women of The Silk, by Gail Tsukiyama. Ellie learns how to go through life with only the help of herself, and so does Pei, in Women of the Silk. They both learn how to adapt to changes in their life and they both hold courageous chracter traits. In this book, Ellie's mother leaves and leaves Ellie behind, but Ellie manages to keep her head up even with many devastations, like being treated differently in school. It makes me want to be more brave like her and when something badly goes wrong in your life, you just need to be like Ellie and just try to make the best of your life. She looks back at the end of the story on how much she has accomplished on her own.
—Samantha
1963 is a year of great change for 11-year-old Ellie Dingman. The assassination of JFK inspires Ellie's flamboyant mother to leave her family, move to New York City, and pursue a career in acting. With her mother in the Big Apple and her father working long hours, Ellie inherits the tasks of maintaining the household and caring for her younger brother and sister. School offers Ellie no respite; Ellie and her best friend, Holly, are designated “weirdos” and “misfits” by their sixth grade classmates. Under the leadership of the school's four most popular and malicious girls, Ellie and Holly are alternately abused and shunned by their peers. Unfortunately, the cruelty Ellie and Holly encounter at school is just an extension of their hometown's many prejudices. The residents of Spectacular, New York regard Ellie and Holly's cul-de-sac neighborhood, as the official address of local outcasts. Holly's mother is unmarried; hints of lesbianism surround the ladies who live down the street; the Levin family is Jewish; the Lauchaire family is French; and now, Mrs. Dingman's absence is every bit as conspicuous as her presence once was. Though Ellie is fond of her neighbors, routine vandalism suggests the townspeople have a very different opinion. Mailboxes are sabotaged, trees are assaulted with spray-paint, and Holly's beloved cat is poisoned. Ellie yearns for normalcy and stability, hoping to find a place for herself at home, at school, and in Spectacular. In the spring, Ellie travels to New York City for a surprise visit with her mother. Secretly, Ellie hopes this journey will reunite the Dingmans—but instead, Ellie finds that her mother has both physically and emotionally distanced herself from the family. Realizing that she no longer fits into her mother's life, Ellie re-conceptualizes the meaning of “family” and “normal.” Come June, Mr. and Mrs. Dingman file for a divorce and Mrs. Dingman heads to Hollywood. Although their marriage has dissolved, Ellie grows closer to her father, brother, and sister
—Morgan
