145. Next Door To Happy

Next Door to Happy. Allison Weiser Strout. 2022. [July] 192 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: Ever since they moved in next door last week, I've sat on our front porch watching them.

Premise/plot: Violet Crane, our young heroine, is falling (yes, literally, at least sometimes) for the next door neighbors, the Walkers. There are five kids in the family. And each one is a potential playmate and friend to the lonely Violet. Her friendships--at least during the summer--are up in the air. Her mother suffers from severe anxiety (rarely leaving the house, unwilling to meet new people). Violet sees the next door neighbors as perfection personified. Could there be a more perfect family???? Turns out, the Walkers aren't all that perfect, but, it may take Violet a while to understand that every family dynamic has strengths and weaknesses.

My thoughts: I'm not sure how I feel about this one. It is definitely character-driven. Violet is unhappy with her own family: she's an only child, a lonely child, her parents are divorced. She daydreams herself right into the perfect family that happens to live next door. But daydreams are daydreams are daydreams. Readers may spot this before Violet herself does. (Does she ever realize this???) The Walkers are a blur. There are five children, and, many of them just blend together with the exception of Chloe (who always seems contrary to everyone else) and Reggie, the sibling who is in her own class. Reggie and Violet become good friends. I didn't see perfection like Violet did. I do wish that we got to know Violet's mother better--seen through more compassionate eyes than Violet. 

 

© 2022 Becky Laney of Young Readers