Junonia: 07/01/11

On June 11th, I made Junonia by Kevin Henkes my featured wishlist book. A few days later while checking NetGalley, I saw that I had been invited to review the book. Score!

Alice Rice and her mother and father go to Florida every February for her birthday. This year she is turning ten but things aren't quite the same. Some of her dear friends can't make it this year and another dear friend is brining along a boyfriend and his daughter! It looks like her most important birthday might be a bust.

Perhaps the best way to describe this book (as at least two other reviewers have on GoodReads) is to call it a middle grade Mrs. Dalloway. Just as Mrs. Dalloway is focused on getting ready for her party, so is Alice. There's the same determined sadness to their methods. For Alice, it's the missing friends, the troubled Mallory and her frustration over never finding a junonia.

I've also read reviews saying the book wouldn't appeal to anyone except almost ten year old girls. I disagree. I think anyone, boy or girl, who has had their plans dashed by events out of their control will see themselves in Alice.

I read the book via NetGalley.

Four stars.

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