Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I finished Sharon Draper’s Blended yesterday–ahead of my 14-year-old, who’s also reading it!–and while it had some lovely moments, I have to say I foundOut of My Mind to be the better book. It isn’t that Izzy’s not engaging, because she is; it isn’t that anything about the novel is completely unrealistic, although I desperately want it to be. It’s more that for a novel of its size and depth, two complete stories and themes were too much for it to handle. I wish Draper had picked either Izzy’s experiences as a child of divorced parents OR Izzy’s experiences with contemporary racism for her plot; either would have made a successful storyline. Instead, we have a book that tries to blend two complete stories and doesn’t fully do either story justice. (A longer book for older readers might have done it, but Izzy’s voice is too young for that.) There’s also a feeling of ‘well, THAT escalated quickly’ during the crisis point, perhaps because Izzy as a narrator covers a decent amount of minutiae–although that may have been a conscious contrast, considering the topic. Ultimately, there’s plenty of meat in this story, but (in my opinion) it’s a bit too rare. Izzy’s likability makes it no hardship to read, however, and for those who will see themselves in her, it still has the potential to be an important book.

In other news, it’s going to be one of those ‘busy from 3:00 on’ kind of days, and I’m not looking forward to it. I have one child with play rehearsal until 4-ish and another one with dance at 4:20, not to mention feeding ALL the children and getting the older girls and myself to our youth activity on time. Wish me luck!