A Home for Peanut Butter and Jelly by Wendy Kaupa. 2020. [August] 90 pages. [Source: Review copy]
First sentence: “Mommm, I’m so borrred!” I whine. “Did you do your chores?” my mother asks, her eyes barely leaving the laptop screen. Honestly, I should have known better than to bother her during “blogging” time. My mother started a blog three months ago about cooking for a picky family, called “The Finicky Family!”
Premise/plot: Mia's mother volunteers her to be a volunteer at a local animal shelter during the summer. While volunteering, she falls in love with two small dogs: Peanut Butter and Jelly. Can she convince her parents that she *needs* to adopt them? How will the family adjust to their new family members?
My thoughts: We're told that Mia is about to enter ninth grade. Sadly, Mia has the emotional maturity of someone entering second or third grade. Mia was reading so young to me that I was absolutely shocked to learn she's about to enter high school! Now does she stay a baby? Not really. Getting the two dogs matures her--I imagine a montage scene with a peppy song--magically and makes her a kind, considerate, non-bratty human being.
A Home for Peanut Butter and Jelly is pure wish fulfillment. There's nothing wrong with a little wish fulfillment now and then. And I think it may be a stage that readers go through when they're young. It makes sense as an early chapter book for the seven to nine crowd. (But why is Mia aged the way she is???) It does not make any sense for a middle grade novel (for readers aged ten and up).
A Home for Peanut Butter and Jelly would be safe to hand to readers who are reluctant to pick up books with dogs on the cover. NO DOGS DIE in the book.
© 2021 Becky Laney of Young Readers
No comments:
Post a Comment