Using a child narrator for a novel intended for adult readers is a tricky proposition, but Sandra Kring pulls it off with perfection in The Book of Bright Ideas.
Evelyn Peters (aka âButtonâ) is the heart of this tale of childhood friendship that grows with the intensity that only eight-going-on-nine can muster when an unconventional pair of siblings burst into their staid midwestern town like the fireworks on âMarty Grawâ. Freeda Malone is a fiery redhead with the mouth of a sailor, the body of a temptress, and a perhaps too-healthy appetite for male company. Her baby sister Winnalee is an impatient bundle of energy, dubious fashion choices, and big ideas (which she writes down in the titular book). That the two girls should instantly become best of friends is almost inevitable, as Button's imagination is nurtured by Winnalee's flights of fancy, and Winnalee finds stability and loving acceptance from Button's Aunt Verdella.
What's perhaps less to be expected is that the free-spirited Freeda also opens doors for Verdella and for Button's mother, Jewel â a process Button sees and describes, without fully understanding what's at the base of it all. She knows only that, bit by bit, her world is getting just slightly bigger, though sometimes the grown-ups around her make choices she can't really comprehend.
Kring keeps the point-of-view firmly with Button, even as events unfold in the adult world that will change everything in heartbreaking ways. Most readers will have winkled out the main revelation long before it's made, but can still feel the pain the knowledge brings to everyone touched by it.
Definitely worth the read.
Evelyn Peters (aka âButtonâ) is the heart of this tale of childhood friendship that grows with the intensity that only eight-going-on-nine can muster when an unconventional pair of siblings burst into their staid midwestern town like the fireworks on âMarty Grawâ. Freeda Malone is a fiery redhead with the mouth of a sailor, the body of a temptress, and a perhaps too-healthy appetite for male company. Her baby sister Winnalee is an impatient bundle of energy, dubious fashion choices, and big ideas (which she writes down in the titular book). That the two girls should instantly become best of friends is almost inevitable, as Button's imagination is nurtured by Winnalee's flights of fancy, and Winnalee finds stability and loving acceptance from Button's Aunt Verdella.
What's perhaps less to be expected is that the free-spirited Freeda also opens doors for Verdella and for Button's mother, Jewel â a process Button sees and describes, without fully understanding what's at the base of it all. She knows only that, bit by bit, her world is getting just slightly bigger, though sometimes the grown-ups around her make choices she can't really comprehend.
Kring keeps the point-of-view firmly with Button, even as events unfold in the adult world that will change everything in heartbreaking ways. Most readers will have winkled out the main revelation long before it's made, but can still feel the pain the knowledge brings to everyone touched by it.
Definitely worth the read.
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