Here Today

Title: Here Today

 

Author: Ann M. Martin

 

Summary: Ellie is growing up in a small New York town in 1963 along with her two younger siblings, and her father, and her mother who has always had an burning (and I mean burning!) desire to be famous. She does everything she can to become famous in her small town, often times forgetting about how the rest of her family feels and often only thinking about herself. Ellie, who has recently entered 6th grade, is having a hard time in school and she is being bullied along with her friend Holly and the rest of the kids on her street which has been deemed as eccentric and weird.

As school gets harder to deal with, the situation gets worse when Ellie's mother, Doris Day Dingman decides that she needs to go to New York city in search of fame. So, she leaves her family for a while to go to New York City, saying that the rest of the family will move with her after the school year. But things aren't working out and 1963 is the year that Ellie learns that she has to let go to move forward.

 

Comments: I really enjoyed this book. Ann M. Martin is the author of my guilty pleasure series, The Babysitters Club, and she is also the author of several other books that I have enjoyed and reviewed on here (click under the Ann M. Martin author tag to see my reviews). The characters in this book feel real - they are all really unique. The outline of the characters may be a little stereotyped at times, however I didn't feel that it took away from the book.

Ellie is likeable - her mother isn't, but her mother isn't sold to the reader as unlikeable right away, which I like; it is up to the reader to decide at first. I felt terrible at her decision to leave Ellie and her siblings and by the end of the book, though she was just a fictional character, I was so angry with her! I especially was upset when Ellie got to finally visit her grandparents and she had to go to her mother's audition with her. Ellie was a great example of an ordinary girl who proved to be very strong when a less-than-perfect situation was thrown her way.
This book was so well written, yet Ellie's situation was almost painful to read. Ellie's relationship with her mother was sad, yet I felt even worse for her younger siblings.

This book has some more mature themes I'd say, so I'd probably recommend it to 10+. This book was just wonderful and Ann M. Martin really worked her writing magic with this book once again. The writing was just beautiful. Ann M. Martin is the classic writer of today, I think. I was quite pleased and I think that any reader of the 10-13 age range would be pleased too!

 

Complaints: None.

 

Rating: 5 stars!