Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

That’s tonight for you, folks. I recognize that it’s already close to 9:30, but I went to the Layton temple with family this morning and spent most of the rest of the day running kids around and completing errands. (SO HOT…) When I finished my scripture study, however, I turned to Booki Vivat’s Meet Me on Mercer Street, since I was close to done with it, and thus, you have a review today. Lucky you!

My now-14-year-old and I read Booki Vivat’s ‘Frazzled’ series years ago, when it was new; we both enjoyed it, but until recently, I hadn’t seen anything else by Vivat at our library. Mercer Street came out this year, however, and I promptly used up a precious (read–possibly not even really available) hold space for it. (It’s a fast read, though, so my kiddos should sail through it.) What did I think of it? Honestly, I’m having a hard time quantifying it. I really enjoyed the feel of it–I love it when a neighborhood truly has a sense of community–and yet, from an adult’s perspective, the plot’s a bit uneven. Kacie comes back from a summer with cousins to find that her best friend is gone–another family is living in her apartment and everything–and the store her family owned is being replaced by a soulless chain (my words, but accurate). The way the adults around her are acting, it’s clear there’s something bigger going on, but what? Being an adult myself, the answer is pretty obvious; on the other hand, Kacie’s feelings and thought processes may thoroughly resonate with the book’s intended age group. It’s got a format like the ‘Emmie & Friends’ series–a heavily illustrated novel interspersed with pages of true graphic novel panels–and the message is a nice one. I’ll be interested to see how it goes over with my kiddos, but even though I was aware pretty early on that my not being the intended audience was a drawback, I still enjoyed this one.