Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

It was, on the whole, rather a relaxing weekend, and I’m desperately grateful–not only because we hadn’t had one in a while, but because this coming week is going to be a logistical nightmare. I’m free at the moment, however, and I’m therefore going to review a title from my backlog. Hallelujah!

You know it’s bad, though, when the book in question isn’t my current read-aloud with my 14-year-old, NOR my previous one. No, it’s the one before that, and I’m going to have to estimate the date of its finishing based on its successor’s start date. (And to think that–once upon a few decades ago–my elementary school self was sure estimating was a stupid thing to learn.) Needs must! In any case, I did enjoy Kat Greene Comes Clean, although I wasn’t necessarily blown away by it. (To be fair, I take a good bit of blowing, so to speak.) There are more and more books available about children dealing with a parent’s mental health issues, but not so many are about parents with OCD; given that I lean in that direction myself, I was especially interested in Kat Greene. Kat’s situation, however, didn’t feel as relatable to me as I wanted it to, and yet some of that is likely just me. It’s a good thing that the school psychologist is one of the forces that move Kat’s problems towards workable solutions; Olympia’s ‘free-spirited’ approach, however, would have been unlikely to encourage any of my classmates to open up. And Kat’s friend drama was–frustrating. I honestly don’t know enough about clinical OCD to know if the depiction of Kat’s mother was more or less realistic, although the parent in me wanted to slap her on several occasions, and I’m still amused at the Harriet the Spy part of the plot, because I didn’t like that book when I WAS the right age for it.

I guess I’m trying to say that I didn’t relate to the overall book as much as I thought I would, but it was an engaging and enjoyable read, and there’s some positive modeling for kids in similar circumstances. My daughter seemed to like it as well.

Bottom line? It’s worth reading–but maybe start with a library copy.