Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Much Ado About Anne
Fiction Series
For ages 9 to 12
Simon and Schuster, 2009 ISBN: 978-1416982692
Emma, Jess, Megan, and Cassidy are starting a new school year and they are going to also begin reading a new book with the members of their mother-daughter book club. The friends and their mothers meet at Megan’s house and it promises to be a great evening. Then the mothers announce that they have a surprise, which is when Becca Chadwick her mother walk in. They have been invited to join the club! Needless to say Emma, Jess, and Cassidy are appalled. Becca is their worst enemy. What were their mothers thinking. Megan is less sure. Even though she is friends with Emma, Jess, and Cassidy, she cannot help like Becca and her friends (collectively called the Fab Three). The Fab Three are into fashion, just as Megan is, and they like shopping in the mall too.
With the exception of Cassidy, who does not like reading much, Emma, Jess, and Megan are pleased with this year’s book, Anne of Green Gables. They cannot help enjoying the stories about Anne Shirley and her many adventures and misadventures. Unfortunately, their enjoyment of the book is somewhat spoiled when a prank aimed at Becca goes horribly wrong. An already tense situation is made even worse when Jess explains that there is a good chance that her family will have to sell Half Moon Farm. Apparently they owe large amounts of tax that they just cannot afford to pay.
Desperately the girls try to come up with ways to make some money so that they can save the farm. They pet sit, give lessons, and make clothes, but their earnings are no where near enough. What can they do that will really make a difference?
In this second mother-daughter book club title, the four friends not only get to share a book they love, but they also learn that when they work together they are capable of doing great things. All of them learn a little more about themselves and each other. They grow up a little more, and come to better understand that there are some things that they can change, and some that they cannot.
