Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

That sounds less ambivalent than mixed feelings, right? It’s not just me?

Anyway. I do have an assortment of feelings about Really Truly, the third of Heather Vogel Frederick’s ‘Pumpkin Falls Mysteries’. In it Truly is looking forward to the perfect summer–and then, of course, nothing goes as planned. Instead of birdwatching, summer swim team, time with Calhoun (they’re both interested in each other, she’s pretty sure), and time at the bookstore, she’s suddenly headed to Mermaid Academy, where she’s stuck in a clamshell bra and a professional mermaid tail weighing at least 30 pounds (the amateur tail ordered for her did not come in the size ordered). Luckily, Truly’s a good enough swimmer to pull it off, and learning her most famous ancestor just may have been a pirate makes for an interesting week; unluckily, that week ends with a splashy fiasco that leaves her grounded. Is this going to prevent the Pumpkin Falls Private Eyes from solving two mysteries?

Here’s the thing. While Truly is sometimes whiny in a way that annoys my 45-year-old self, she’s 13, so that’s only realistic, and her readers are likely going to relate. And while the pirate part of the plot is farfetched–eh. Why not? What really bothered me was Truly’s dad’s reaction to the end-of-Mermaid-Academy fiasco and her subsequent grounding, as well as her reaction to it. My children span roughly the age group that the Lovejoys do, and the whole situation was an unacceptable parenting fail. Yeah, yeah, her dad’s only been out of the military for a year or two, and Truly’s older two siblings are both boys, but Truly’s mom should have stepped in–FORCEFULLY. Instead, we have an unjust punishment which sets us up to sympathize with Truly for sneaking around, even though that’s also completely problematic. And if it was mostly a plot device to make the story work–come on. Surely there was another way…

Okay, sort-of-rant over. I’m not sure how my girls will feel about it, but I’m thinking they’ll still enjoy it. After all, I more or less still enjoyed it–I’m just glad it’s over. I’m also, however, looking forward to the next one.

In other news, this is the week of all the appointments, but the most important one–my hubby’s post-surgery follow-up–was yesterday. Basically, the tumor removed from his kidney was cancerous, but it was completely removed and the margins and lymph nodes were clean, so no signs of spreading. He’s going to need blood tests every six months for the next couple of years, and an MRI in February, but he was blessedly philosophical about that. Good news, even if the whole thing still seems just a tad surreal. Today my oldest has the dermatologist and tomorrow my son has therapy–and then, happily, we all have a three-day weekend!