I love the characters in Much Ado About Anne because the characters have so many different traits. You could relate to almost all of them. There isn’t the “sports girl” and the “funny girl” and the “smart girl”. In this book, the sports girl is also funny and the fashion girls also care about other things and the girl who likes to read also likes to write. They are complex. You might think that a book about reading books wouldn’t be interesting, but what makes this book so enticing is that they take classics (like Anne of Green Gables) and find ways to make them seem new. Hearing about all the books that they read makes me want to read them too! I'm reading these to see how well they would work to read with my five daughters. They are engaging and well-written. A little predictable and quaint--everything seems to just wrap up so nicely. But the characters develop more--so far--through the book series. I think my girls would enjoy them. My only hesitation is that I'm concerned that they will stray too much into just being about the crushes the four girls have on different boys. There is so much more to explore with the characters.I do appreciate the lessons the author is trying to teach girls. Emma, who seems to be the most likely candidate for the main character (although the story is told from the point-of-view of all four girls, her voice is most often heard) is slightly overweight. She is teased for this and in this second book she starts exercising. The author carefully frames this experience as Emma's attempt to be healthier and mentions how much better, stronger she feels and how much and tries to make the weight loss a peripheral benefit. I have been most touched with Cassidy's story--the girl hockey player with fiery red hair. She grapples with the pain of her father's death and her character seems the most developed and "real." I also like how she stands up to the queen bee types. This is such a silly and frustrating of middle school for girls! I think the message is that the girls come to accept each other where they are. Even the moms seem to grow in this way. I plan to finish the series.
What do You think about Much Ado About Anne (2008)?
was awesome I give it triple thumps up but I don't have another hand!
—andrea
