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I skipped a post because the 17th is my birthday and I was feeling lazy, just so you know; I also still hadn’t finished a book yet, because 3,000 PIECE PUZZLE. (It’s the tree or me at this point.) Last night, however, I finished off Charise Mericle Harper’s Dreamer, Wisher, Liar, and I have to say–I was impressed. My girls have both enjoyed Harper’s Just Grace series, but it’s for younger readers; Dreamer, Wisher, Liar is almost 350 pages long and very solidly middle grade. And it’s fascinating.
The narrator and main character has face blindness, which makes her best friend’s impending out-of-state move a disaster of epic proportions. Lucy is the one who helps her identify people, who saves her from awkwardness in basic social situations whenever she and Ash are together. Now Lucy’s at summer camp and Ashley is stuck helping babysit the 7-year-old daughter of her mother’s friend. Claire is loud and social and relentless, throwing Ash’s carefully constructed habits into chaos. Add in a series of unexpected trips into someone else’s past, and you have a summer full of change, growth, and little touches of magic.
Okay, now that I’ve given an advertisement sort of blurb–it’s what came out tonight, sorry–let me say this. Ash drew me quickly into her world and kept me there; I didn’t always agree with her outlook on or reactions to life, but it was easy to see her motivations. (Google face blindness sometime. It will blow your mind a little.) The threads of the novel gradually weave together into a slightly complex but completely readable story, a story that sticks with you after you finish the book. If you’ve got middle grade girls, don’t pass this one by.
By the way, what’s looming now is 40. I’m now officially 39, and I’m still trying to decide how I feel about it!