Saturday, May 28, 2011

Junonia by Kevin Henkes

Junonia
     Each year Alice and her parents vacation in Florida and celebrate Alice's birthday there.  Alice considers the guests in the other cottages and her mom's best friend  (who stays in their cottage) her extended family as she really has no other relatives.  She's hunting for junonia, a rare seashell and spends lots of time searching for it on the beach.  This year not only does the junonia continue to evade her but some of the regulars do not come to Florida.  Additionally Kate is joined by her boyfriend and his six-year-old daughter Mallory.  Alice is worried that her tenth birthday will not be the best birthday ever.
     Alice is a child on the cusp of pre-teen.  Supported by attentive and very loving parents, they help her navigate and deal with a trying situation.  It's very obvious that the other guests adore Alice but have little patience for Mallory.  Henkes is spot on in how a ten-year-old thinks.  From her jealous feelings and anger towards Mallory to the joy of her birthday gifts, from walks on the beach to the pitter patter of rain this is a delightful book and young girls in grades 3-6 will enjoy it.
     Read as an ebook arc courtesy of Harper Collins via Netgalley (without the illustrations).  

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

i really want to read this book and see how it tures out!!!!






ashelyn

Anonymous said...

this one is good.




-mia g.

Anonymous said...

ithink this book will turn out to be really good

Mrs. Katz said...

We just received JUNONA as a birthday book so you can check it and read it (in September when we are back in school).