Mother Reader reviewed this book, by Jennifer L. Holm and Elicia Castaldi a while back (and very kindly she put it in her best of 2007 list so there was a link! Thanks!) and something about what she said compelled me to put this one on hold at the library. (I’m really just too cheap to buy books. Sigh.)

Anyway, Pam’s right. It is one of the best little books I’ve read this year. It didn’t take long… it’s, well, A Year Told Through Stuff, and reading reciepts, text messages, notes, letters and school assignments doesn’t take long. But it’s amazing. Amazing that we get to know and feel with Ginny without the traditional text to guide us. The basic “plot” is a simple one: Ginny goes through school, gains a dad (her mom remarries), deals with friends, deals with school, deals with brothers, and survives. But Holm and Castaldi make the ordinary (a simple request from mom for Ginny to clean her room, for example) extraordinary.

Some of my favorite moments: the bank statement every month. No matter how much Ginny deposits and withdrawals she always ends up with $5. The receipt for the salon and the plumbing after Ginny tries dying her hair. The Adventures of Harry and Ginny comic strips (drawn by Ginny’s older brother).

This poem:

There’s nothing quite like
the first day of school,
with all those
newly waxed floors
and hopeful faces.
You can’t help but think
you’ll get a fresh start
and be the girl
everyone thinks is cool.
not the one who got whacked
by a softball in gym
and had her nose
swell to the size of the
Empire State Building.
There’s nothing quite like
the first day of school,
you think,
and then Brian Bukvic
shouts,
“Hey Banana Nose!”
and you know you’re
back in school.

Actually, I loved all the poems in the book. (Read the one Mother Reader quoted; it’s hilarious.)

I handed it to M when she came home from school yesterday, and she finished it an hour or so later. She loved it, too. Though probably for different reasons. She related to the friendship issues. She loved the science fair project. She enjoyed getting to know Ginny.

As did I.