Review of The Call, by Yannick Murphy

The Call

by Yannick Murphy

Harper Perennial, 2011. 223 pages.
Starred Review

It took me quite awhile to look at the back of this book closely enough to realize that Yannick Murphy is a woman. She gets the voice of a man, a veterinarian in New England, exactly right. Or at least what a woman thinks of as exactly the voice of a man, I suppose.

You’ll get the format of the book right from the start. Here’s how it begins:

CALL: A cow with her dead calf half-born.
ACTION: Put on boots and pulled dead calf out while standing in a field full of mud.
RESULT: Hind legs tore off from dead calf while I pulled. Head, forelegs, and torso are still inside the mother.
THOUGHTS ON DRIVE HOME WHILE PASSING RED AND GOLD LEAVES ON MAPLE TREES: Is there a nicer place to live?
WHAT CHILDREN SAID TO ME WHEN I GOT HOME: Hi, Pop.
WHAT THE WIFE COOKED FOR DINNER: Something mixed-up.

CALL: Old woman with minis needs bute paste.
ACTION: Drove to old woman’s house, delivered bute paste. Pet minis. Learned their names — Molly, Netty, Sunny, and Storm.
RESULT: Minis are really cute.
THOUGHTS ON DRIVE HOME: Must bring children back here sometime to see the cute minis.
WHAT CHILDREN SAID TO ME WHEN I GOT HOME: Hi, Pop.
WHAT THE WIFE COOKED FOR DINNER: Steak and potatoes, no salad. She said, David, our salad days are over, it now being autumn and the garden bare except for wind-tossed fallen leaves.

Yes, the story does get more complex, but always follows the same listing format. His responses about the items get much longer, waxing into many paragraphs. For example, here’s a section only a few pages in:

WHAT THE WIFE SAID AFTER DINNER: Whose sneakers are these on the floor? Who left the butter out? Whose books are these? Whose sweater? Whose crumbs? Can’t you clean up after yourselves? Don’t leave a wet towel on your bed. Flush the toilet. Can’t anyone flush the toilet? These papers will get ruined on the table in the kitchen. Do you want your papers ruined?
WHAT THE CHILDREN DID: Ran outside.
WHAT I DID: Ran outside. We went and looked for trees that would be good for raising my deer stand. There’s a hill and ridge below where a stream runs through. There are game trails going down the ridge. There is already a wooden deer stand there someone put up long ago where Sam could hunt from while I hunted from my tree stand at the same time. This would be a good place for my stand. I thought I could use my stand for other things other than hunting, too. I could stand in my stand at night and call to the owls. I could stand in my stand at night and look for the bright lights in the sky, the object moving quickly back and forth, but then I remembered there was a warning that came with my stand. The warning said never to strap yourself into the harness in darkness because you may make a mistake, you may not be able to see where your leg should be going through a loop. You could be strapped into nothing. Also, you may not see a rung as you’re climbing down the stand. Your footing will have no purchase. You will fall like a shot bird from a branch, head over heels to the forest floor heavily strewn with needles of pine.
WHAT SAM DID: Imitated me standing in the stand and falling out and landing with my head on a rock.
WHAT MY DAUGHTERS DID: Jumped on top of him as he lay with his head on the rock being me.
WHAT I SAID: Shhh, if you want to see something in the woods you have to be quiet.

Several themes develop. Those bright lights in the sky at night continue to dance around, until he’s convinced there’s a UFO overhead. He’s supposed to go see the doctor. But much worse is what happens when his son goes hunting for the first time, and the aftermath.

I had planned to turn this book back in because I hadn’t started it and my pile was too big, but when I read that first page, I couldn’t resist. There’s something so inherently funny about this understated way of looking at things, and the progression of his thoughts. Is there perhaps some superiority in thinking this must be exactly how a man thinks? Perhaps. But there’s a lot of humor, too.

And the story? There is one, and it’s a lovely one; a story about life and living it and enjoying every detail.

If you find this beginning irresistible, as I did, you will know that you need to read this book!

yannickmurphy.com
harperperennial.com

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Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of The Spellman Files, by Lisa Lutz

The Spellman Files

by Lisa Lutz

Performed by Christina Moore

Recorded Books, 2007. 8 CDs. Unabridged.
Starred Review.

Izzy Spellman has worked in the family business since she was 12 years old. The family business is private detection. But they don’t really do glamorous murder cases. Their work tends more toward background checks and tailing people. Izzy is very good at those things.

Izzy was always something of a black sheep, even in their crazy family. But now that Izzy is 28 and her little sister is 14, she’d like to set a better example for Rae. Still, Izzy can’t resist doing a background check on a potential boyfriend, nor can she bring herself to tell him the truth about herself and her family. Finally, she decides if she ever wants to have a normal life, she’ll have to get out of the family business.

Surprisingly, her parents agree. But they give her one more case, a cold case about a boy who disappeared 15 years ago. However, when Rae disappears in the middle of the case, things get awfully serious.

I listened to this book on a car trip up to Philadelphia for PLA Biennial Conference, and when I got there, I got to meet the author and purchase the next book! On long trips, I love listening to books that make me laugh, and this book filled the bill beautifully. The mystery aspect was a tiny bit disappointing — this isn’t a puzzle-type detective novel. But taken for what it is, the story of a young woman with a crazy family trying to have a normal life, and not really succeeding, this book is a smashing success. Because, after all, who of us is really normal? But listening to Izzy’s story, you might start to think you are.

Big thanks to my co-worker Lynne for recommending this as a great book to listen to.

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of And Then It’s Spring, by Julie Fogliano and Erin E. Stead

And Then It’s Spring

written by Julie Fogliano
illustrated by Erin E. Stead

A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press, 2012. 32 pages.

As you would expect from Caldecott-winning illustrator Erin Stead, this book is beautiful. This isn’t so much a book for storytime (though it would work for that if the kids could sit up close to see the pictures and the details) as it is a meditative book for sitting with a child in your lap and looking slowly and enjoying the pictures.

This is a book about time passing, specifically the time when winter is finishing up, and you’re waiting for Spring. It’s not particularly a book for southern California (where I grew up), but it’s lovely for more northern climes.

First you have brown,
all around you have brown.

The bundled up boy and dog and turtle (even the turtle has a stocking cap at first!) plant some seeds. They wait and wait. They shed some wraps. It’s amazing how many different scenes Erin Stead makes out of that premise. And the poetry of the lines has its own music.

One page I especially like is:

or maybe it was the bears and all that stomping,
because bears can’t read signs
that say things like
“please do not stomp here —
there are seeds
and they are trying.”

On that page, three bears are in among the plantings, and one bear is scratching himself with the described sign.

On another page, we see creatures that have made tunnels inside the earth as we look at a cross-section, with the boy and a rabbit with their ear to the ground and the dog and the turtle looking at a creature coming out of a tunnel.

and the brown,
still brown,
has a greenish hum
that you can only hear
if you put your ear to the ground
and close your eyes”

But don’t worry! Spring does come.

but the brown isn’t around
and now you have green,
all around
you have
green.

This book has grown on me. The first time I read it, I leafed through it too quickly. This is a book for poring over, for reading again and again, and for sharing with a child.

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Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Review of Everybody Sees the Ants, by A. S. King

Everybody Sees the Ants

by A. S. King

Little, Brown, and Company, 2011. 282 pages.
2011 Cybils Finalist
Starred Review

Since he was seven years old, Lucky Linderman has dreamed about his grandfather, who was Missing in Action in Vietnam so many years ago that Lucky’s father never had his father around. These dreams are dream-like, with dream-like impossible things happening in them. But when Lucky wakes up, he has things in his hand that he was holding during the dream. His grandfather gives him a cigar, for example, and he’s holding it when he wakes up. If he steps in mud, he’s dirty when he wakes up.

That’s not why Lucky’s gotten in trouble at school, though. Here’s how he explains what happened:

All I did was ask a stupid question.

Six months ago I was assigned the standard second-semester freshman social studies project at Freddy High: Create a survey, evaluate data, graph data, express conclusion in a two-hundred-word paper. This was an easy A. I thought up my question and printed out 120 copies.

The question was: If you were going to commit suicide, what method would you choose?

This was a common conversation topic between Nader (shotgun in the mouth), Danny (jump in front of a speeding truck) and me (inhaling car fumes), and we’d been joking about it for months during seventh-period study hall. I never saw anything bad in it. That kind of stuff made Nader laugh. And Nader laughing at my jokes meant maybe I could get through high school with less shrapnel.

I think you can see why this survey led to “concern,” but the fallout also leads to bullying. And he gets some answers to his survey from surprising places.

As the book continues, Lucky deals with more bullying and a trip with his Mom to Arizona to stay with his mother’s brother and wife, crazy Aunt Jodi. All the while, he’s dealing with these dreams that are somehow real. And the ants? Well, the ants are a sort of Greek chorus that Lucky sees, who watch and comment on his every move.

They first appear when he’s being bullied:

Ants appear on the concrete in front of me. Dancing ants. Smiling ants. Ants having a party. One tells me to hang on. Don’t worry, kid! he says, holding up a martini glass. It’ll be over in a minute!

All of this may sound strange, and it is. The book is strange, and the phenomena are never explained. But somehow it all adds up to a powerful and moving story about a boy growing up and learning to face tough things. By the end of the book, you’re completely on the side of Lucky Linderman, and confident that he’s going to make it through high school.

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Source: This review is based on an Advance Reader Copy I got at an ALA conference and checked against a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Review of A Walk in London, by Salvatore Rubbino

A Walk in London

by Salvatore Rubbino

Candlewick Press, 2011. 32 pages.

I wish this book had been written when we still lived in Europe! It would have been absolutely perfect to read to our boys (Let’s see, they were 5 and 11 years old) for our first family trip to London.

As a matter of fact, I would have liked to read it myself before my own trips to London. It gives a nice overview, with plenty of details, and I learned much about the city I didn’t know, even having been there.

The story is a little girl and her mother sight-seeing in London. They mostly talk about what they’re doing and what they’re seeing, like the girl running to climb on the lions in Trafalgar Square.

The largest text follows the girl and her mother, and smaller print tells about details in the background. There are lots of things to look at on every page, and the back cover asks if you spotted the Royal Family’s car, and gives the page numbers.

The pictures remind me a little bit of the illustrations of Paris in Madeleine, although these are more precise and more colorful. They definitely evoke London, without being photorealistic. You can tell what you’re seeing. There’s an interesting sense of depth, as it looks like he cut out sketches of people and things and placed them on top of one another, also using size to show distance.

If I ever get a chance to go to London again (and I definitely hope to do so), I will read this book before going. Eyewitness guides are fantastic, but this book a lovely way to imagine yourself taking a walk in London, and learning about the city while you’re at it.

This is not a book for group storytimes, but it would be a lovely book to share with one child at a time, taking time to catch all the details and, best of all, prepare them for a trip to London.

candlewick.com

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Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of Mom, It’s My First Day of Kindergarten! by Hyewon Yum

Mom, It’s My First Day of Kindergarten!

by Hyewon Yum

Frances Foster Books (Farrar Straus Giroux), New York, 2012. 36 pages.
Starred Review

I would have never checked out this book. I mean, come on, how many books do we need about getting ready for Kindergarten? When I did read it because it is being considered for the Capitol Choices list, I became convinced that we don’t need any of the other books. We need this one!

This is a book about the feelings of a kid and his Mom when the child is starting Kindergarten. Those feelings are beautifully expressed by size and color. I especially love the way the sizes and colors change from page to page, because feelings on such a momentous day are volatile. Feelings change.

At the start, the big boy is excitedly waking up his little, blue mother, because he’s ready to start school.

Mom makes my lunch and she starts to worry. “Do they have snacks in kindergarten? What if you don’t have time to finish your sandwich at lunch? You’ll be so hungry.”

“I can eat fast, Mom.”

The picture on that page clearly demonstrates the big, confident boy wolfing down his breakfast in an Enormous Mouthful. All Mom’s other worries, he can handle. And he’s consistently pictured as large and confident, while Mom is much smaller and completely shaded in blue.

They rush to school, with the big, happy, confident boy pulling along his tiny Mom. The reversal of the usual tropes continues, and the big boy mounts the steps to the big school.

Mom doesn’t look happy.
“We don’t know anyone here. I miss your old teachers and your friends.”

“I like to make new friends, Mom, and you’ll make new friends in no time.”

I say hi to the girl with a pink ribbon.
She says hi.

And her mom says hi to my mom.
My mom smiles back.

On that page, color beautifully dawns on Mom’s face and body. She smiles with pink cheeks, and the pink and yellow radiate into her blouse. The top of her head and her legs are still blue, but you can see that she’s warming up.

And then, on the next page, they’re back to life size. The boy is tinged with blue as he faces the open classroom door. Mom’s bigger now, and colorful, and she provides a stable place for him to hug. (There’s some blue at her waist where he’s hugging her.)

The teacher comes out to greet them, and the boy gets his confidence back. And his large size. There’s a wonderful picture on the page when the teacher says it’s time for the parents to leave. “Mom hugs me, and kisses me, and hugs me, and kisses me.” The boy is about to pop from the force of the hugs, and Mom’s face is blue again, but she’s smiling.

Then we get to work.
Kindergarten is awesome.

There’s a truly wonderful double page spread at the end of the day when the Kindergartners are lined up, ready to go home. They are all huge and confident, completely filling the page and smiling. “When we line up, I feel so much bigger.” He looks bigger, too.

Mom, waiting out in the school yard, is back to blue. But when they have a big hug, she’s back to normal color and size.

Until the boy has his final question:

“Mom, can I take the school bus tomorrow, please?”

This book is perfect in so many ways. It so wonderfully shows the feelings taking place here, using the art to say so much more than words can. Then there’s humor in the Mom’s worries, and the confident, reassuring child. But I love that even he has moments of being blue, because that’s the way it really happens.

If you know of a child getting ready to start Kindergarten, I can’t think of a better choice than this book!

mackids.com

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Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of Front and Center, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Front and Center

by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Houghton Mifflin, 2009. 256 pages.
Starred Review

This book was a lovely end to the Dairy Queen trilogy. I was disappointed the library didn’t have this one on CD, but that was a cool excuse to purchase the book at get it signed by Catherine Gilbert Murdock when I got to hear her speak.

DJ’s back to school, and hopes to just melt into the woodwork, but she finds herself the center of attention. She’s trying to figure out where to go to college, trying to improve her basketball game, and trying to forget Brian Nelson. But then Brian starts acting differently, actually willing to be seen with her, while her good friend Beaner wants something more than friendship. DJ’s got life and college and romance to figure out, and it all makes a lovely conclusion to the trilogy.

I don’t really need to say a lot about this book, because those who have come through the first two books with DJ will definitely want to know what happens next. I promise you’ll enjoy the final installment!

catherinegilbertmurdock.com
www.hmhbooks.com

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Source: This review is based on a book I purchased and had signed by the author.

Review of Lucky for Good, by Susan Patron

Lucky for Good

by Susan Patron
read by Cassandra Campbell

Random House, Listening Library, 2011. 5 hours, 30 minutes on 5 CDs.

I was very happy when a third book about Lucky Trimble came out. And this time, I was able to listen to it, as I did the first book, the Newbery-winning The Higher Power of Lucky. Cassandra Campbell does a wonderful job reading it, with a particularly good French accent for Lucky’s Mom, Brigitte.

I enjoyed this book, since they were characters I already love. I like the way Lucky thinks about quirky things, and we go off in tangents along with her thoughts.

I’m afraid I would have liked this book better, though, if it had ended with the third CD. There’s a big climactic scene, an excellent one with danger and luck and humor. When I put that CD away, I remember wondering what was left to happen.

Then today I listened to the last two CDs, and I’m afraid nothing much did happen. There was a plot arc going for the first half of the book, but then it fizzled out. I really think pretty much everything that happened in the last two CDs could have been moved to before the big climactic scene, and it would have given the book a more unified whole.

Miles’ mother returns, and that’s a big part of the book. Lucky’s afraid she’ll take Miles away from Hard Pan, and I do like the resolution given to that worry. However, in the last part of the book, we learn that Miles’ mother Justine is kind of a religious nut. She won’t let Miles read books she doesn’t agree with, and is talking about home schooling him. That is never really resolved. And Miles is very unhappy with the new beliefs he feels he has to adopt. I didn’t like that part. I’m a Christian, but my beliefs are a lot closer to Lucky’s than they are to Justine’s, and I still didn’t like seeing Justine as a straw figure, a caricature of someone who believes things that are completely opposed to science. Lucky and Lincoln talk with Miles about it, but I really don’t like to see them talking about caricatured beliefs. I feel like they’re saying that Christianity is simply not scientific, without actually showing the views of Christian scientists at all.

Okay, I know there really are people like Justine out there. And I do like the way Lucky relates to her. And I like it that they acknowledge that knowing Jesus saved Justine from addiction. But I wasn’t crazy about that part of the story.

Several other things at the end didn’t feel right to me. Something big happens with her father, quite out of the blue. I wish things had built up to that a little. Especially since Lucky was thinking a lot about her father, and thinking a lot about big things happening to people she loves. If it all had been connected a little more, this would have felt like part of the story arc, rather than a random sad happening.

In the beginning, Lucky gets a very interesting assignment as a punishment. Lucky’s working on it a lot — right up until that climactic scene in the middle. Then it’s not mentioned again until the end. Did the principal really accept it at the end of the summer? Why wasn’t it mentioned when they were still in the school year? And how in the world did Lucky find out her ancestors on her mother’s side, when all she knew (last we heard) was her mother’s first name and where she was born?

In the beginning, Lucky also meets an interesting but hostile 8th-grader. That is also pretty much dropped after the big climactic scene in the middle.

And Lincoln heads off to Knot Camp. So he’s not even in the last part of the book. It might have been nice to either end it when he leaves, or, if the summer is only going to be a small part of the book, have him come back right before the end.

However, did I mention how good that big climactic scene in the middle was? Beautiful! A perfect comedy of errors, a lovely play on the quirky people of Hard Pan whom we’ve come to know and love.

The problem the book starts out with is compelling. Brigitte’s Cafe is violating Ordinance 1849! The way the book deals with it is compelling. I just wish that had been the main story arc of the entire book.

Anyway, I loved the first three CDs, and still enjoyed (if not quite as much) the last two. And anyone who’s already come to know Lucky and the delightful people of Hard Pan, California, will definitely want to read this last adventure. (Oh, that’s another thing. The subtitle said this is the final installment of the Hard Pan Trilogy. Why? What is it about Lucky starting junior high that means we won’t get to read about her any more? I think she’ll get even more interesting the older she gets. Still, I guess if the author wants to move on to other characters and other stories, I won’t complain. But I hope she won’t rule out the idea of ever writing more about Lucky.)

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Source: This review is based on a library audiobook from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of Summer of the Gypsy Moths, by Sara Pennypacker

Summer of the Gypsy Moths

by Sara Pennypacker

Balzer + Bray, 2012. 275 pages.
Starred Review

I wasn’t really attracted to this book by the cover. It looks like a feel-good story about girlfriends spending a summer at the beach. However, since I already think Sara Pennypacker’s a genius because of her brilliant writing in the Clementine books, I knew I did want to read it. And since it was nominated for Capitol Choices, I read it sooner rather than later.

In the first 50 pages, I learned that this is actually a book about two 12-year-old girls planning to hide a dead body!

Stella came to her Great-Aunt Louise after her mother had been charged with neglect and was off on an adventure following what she said were job leads. Great-Aunt Louise had also taken in a foster child, Angel, to be company for Stella. That didn’t work out very well, since the two were like oil and water.

“From the living room, I heard Angel snort. She snorted every time I mentioned Heloise, which just went to show what kind of a person she was, since Heloise does nothing but good for people with her household hints column, helping them get their lives in order.”

But then, it’s almost the end of the school year, and Stella and Angel come home from school to find Louise sitting in her chair with the TV on, but it’s the wrong show. Louise is dead.

Angel is not ready to go to another foster home. Stella doesn’t have anywhere else to go. At first they’re just going to put off having to leave, but one thing leads to another, and they decide to stay. They tell crazy fibs about what’s wrong with Louise, and Stella, who’s used to taking care of things for her mother, has no trouble with Louise’s task of keeping the four summer cottages tidied up between customers.

This book is funny and sad and outrageous and poignant.

Once again, Sara Pennypacker’s characters seem like completely real children. The way they react to the dead body that was Louise struck me as completely real. Here’s where they try to prepare her for burial by bringing out all the jewelry she bought from the Home Shopping Network:

“When it came to doing it, though, we couldn’t. Neither one of us could touch Louise’s neck or ears or wrists. In the end, we just tossed everything over her robe and then jumped back to the doorway. Her lap looked like a pirate’s treasure chest, with necklaces and bracelets spilling all over her, and I thought, who wouldn’t like that?”

I’m glad I’m not on the Newbery committee this year, because I’d have an awful time deciding between this book and Wonder and The One and Only Ivan. On the other hand, I’d have to read these brilliant books several times, which would be a treat.

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Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by E. Lockhart

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

by E. Lockhart

Hyperion, New York, 2008. 345 pages.
2009 Printz Honor Book
Starred Review

I took an online course about the Printz Award, and the course finally got me to read this wonderful book.

Frankie’s father is sending her to the exclusive prep school where he attended. Her Dad still meets with his buddies and talks about their secret society, the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds. Unfortunately, it was only for men, so he can’t reveal to Frankie where they hid their record of their escapades, The Disreputable History.

When Frankie’s new boyfriend invites her to a party after curfew and the invitation has a seal with a picture of a basset hound, it’s pretty easy for her to figure out what he’s up to. She doesn’t like it when he won’t tell her anything about his involvement. He thinks of her as a pretty little thing, and that what he does with his friends shouldn’t concern her.

Here’s the letter that opens The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks:

“To: Headmaster Richmond and the Board of Directors, Alabaster Preparatory Academy

“I, Frankie Landau-Banks, hereby confess that I was the sole mastermind behind the mal-doings of the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds. I take full responsibility for the disruptions caused by the Order — including the Library Lady, the Doggies in the Window, the Night of a Thousand Dogs, the Canned Beet Rebellion, and the abduction of the Guppy.

“That is, I wrote the directives telling everyone what to do.

“I, and I alone.

“No matter what Porter Welsch told you in his statement.

“Of course, the dogs of the Order are human beings with free will,. They contributed their labor under no explicit compunction. I did not threaten them or coerce them in any way, and if they chose to follow my instructions, it was not because they feared retribution.

“You have requested that I provide you with their names. I respectfully decline to do so. It’s not for me to pugn or impugn their characters.

“I would like to point out that many of the Order’s escapades were intended as social criticism. And that many of the Order’s members were probably diverted from more self-destructive behaviors by the activities prescribed them by me. So maybe my actions contributed to a larger good, despite the inconveniences you, no doubt, suffered.

“I do understand the administration’s disgruntlement over the incidents. I see that my behavior disrupted the smooth running of your patriarchal establishment. And yet I would like to suggest that you view each of the Loyal Order’s projects with the gruntlement that should attend the creative civil disobedience of students who are politically aware and artistically expressive.

“I am not asking that you indulge my behavior; merely that you do not dulge it without considering its context.

“Yours sincerely,

“Frances Rose Landau-Banks”

How does Frankie manage to out-prank the pranksters? What are these intriguingly named escapades? In what sense were they social activism? And what happens when she pulls them off?

All is revealed in this delightful book. It’s amazing how gripping the plot is, even when you’re told what happens right at the outset. You can’t help but love Frankie and will keep reading to see what clever stunt she accomplishes next, and if her boyfriend and his buddies will learn to take her seriously. Along the way, she has lots to say about our patriarchal society.

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Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.