Belle Teal Book

Well I love the main character. She knows right from wrong, and knows what she wants from life, and does everything a ten year old girl in a stressful situation can do to make good things happen. She minds her manners, helps her gran, works hard in school, sticks up for her friends, makes friends, or at least tries, with everyone, even handles the Mean Girl well, controlling her impulse to fight with her.

But oh the stresses - everything but the kitchen sink is crammed in here. BT's family is her, her mama who works long hours, and her grandma is getting very senile. They have almost no money. There's one friend who is new to the school because he's black and this is the first year of integration. There's another friend with an extremely racist, and abusive, and drunk father. There's another friend, Clarice, who's a terrifically spunky & fun character (I wonder if Martin doesn't know a girl like her irl, as she's so well-developed and authentic despite having a small role.) There's being ten, in and of itself a challenge. There's the Mean Girl, also new to town.

The HEA is, unfortunately, extr. implausible, because Gran is going to get worse, and then who will take care of her so Mama can work and BT can go to school?

And some ppl might not be able to stomach the frequent occurrences of the n-word, even though it's exactly appropriate to the book being historical fiction, showing how some parents of white children harassed the brave black families.

Overall, the book is, perhaps, a little too earnest, a little too stuffed full of issues... but it is engaging, gracefully written, accessible, and important.

I think it would have been just about perfect if Gran had been healthy - the focus on the rest of the issues would have been tighter, and the relevance they have to each other, theme-wise, would have been more clear.

I do recommend the book and want to read more by the author. Heck, I might even pick up one of her babysitter club books just for fun.