I did not like this book as much because I didn't really understand the dialect they spoke in. Rabble had a really strong southern accent and poor grammar. She talked in a 'hillbilly' voice. The setting of the book was in West Virginia, so I'm guessing maybe that’s why the tone of the story was written this way. I tried researching about the author, Lois Lowry, but nothing ever mentioned her living in rural places talking like Rabble. But in the book, Rabble and her mom, Sweet- Ho had a good relationship. This book is told in Rabble's perspective when she is 12 yrs old. In this book, love was a common theme. Veronica and Rabble were great friends, to a point that Rabble borrowed her cousins for Veronica's family tree for school. This showed a friendship love. Family love was between Rabble and Sweet Ho, Mr. Bigelow and Veronica. Another theme that was shown in the book was single parenting, Rabble didn't have a father since he left and Veronica didn't have her mom b/c she’s in the hospital. It makes me question their emotions about that. But through the book, you can see that they are too young to know about single parents. This book was written in the 1990, which explains the language. BUT, something that interested me was how you can see common themes in books today. ESPECIALLY single parenting. In our world today, a lot of kids are raised by single parents. It's just interesting to see this issue in a book writing about 20 years ago. I would not recommend this book, but you can give it a try.
This was one of my favorites as a teen. I found it the other day and decided to try it again, to see if it stood the test of time. As an adult, I understand a lot more of the mother's story, and her sadness. The story is written in such a way that the main character is totally relatable, even though she is twelve years old. This book definitely stood the test of time for me. Plus, I read it in one afternoon. ☺
