Wish You Were Eyre

Frederick, Heather Vogel. Wish You Were Eyre.
11 September 2012, Simon and Schuster Books for Young People

The Mother-Daughter Book Club is back, and for this final installment, they are reading Jane Eyre.The girls are all struggling with various issues-- Becca is waitressing at Pies and Prejudice, but Megan's grandmother is buys planning their trip to Paris... and gets involved in a romance! Megan is distraught that Sophie, the cousin of Annabelle (aka Stinkerbelle), is an exchange student from France living with her family. Megan's mom is running for mayor, and the girls are helping. Jess is involved in a MadriGals contest but running into problems at her boarding school, and Cassidy is keeping up with her hockey. On top of everything else, the mother-daughter book club from Wyoming that was pen pals with the group in Concord comes to visit over spring break, and the week after, Becca gets to go to Mankato with her grandmother. There is also frenemy drama, boy drama, and ... whew. I'm tired just thinking about everything that went on in this book!
Strengths: The best covers EVER. Big shout out to Lucy Ruth Cummins who designed them all. Not a surprise-- she also designed Belly Up and Cordially Uninvited, both of which I really like. Fun stories, good friends, and while I am sad the series is over, I'm just as glad to see what else Frederick will do!
Weaknesses: It's a bit of a hard sell to interest girls in books about a book club involving classics, so these aren't the hottest circulators, but they do a nice steady business!

Reef, Catherine. The Bronte Sisters: The Brief Lives of Charlotte, Emily and Anne.
23 October 2012, Clarion

Here's the nonfiction tie-in for the day! While I found this interesting, I don't think that middle school students are interested enough in the Bronte sisters to warrant purchase. Well researched and fluidly written, this was also extremely depressing, given the subject matter. I knew that there weren't a lot of options available for women during this time period, but didn't fully realize how dismal the future was for the children of clergy at this time. No wonder Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre are so bleak!