Ellie's family has always seemed happy enough to her. Sure, she feels like an outsider in school which is partly due to her mother's crazy antics. Her mom, Doris, walks the fine line between being crazy and just wanting to get out of their small New York town. She has always believed that she was too good for the small town, and finally leaves in 1963 after JFK is assassinated. Ellie has to take care of her brother, sister, and father to some extent, making her way more responsible than she should. This story still has a very contemporary feel, so the historical part is not too distracting. At school Ellie and her best friend Holly deal with bullying because of their differences from the rest of the class. Ellie is strong, and it is made clear that her mother is not. If Ellie was a couple of years older, she would have to deal with a lot more of her mother's problems, so Ellie is the right age for this book. It's interesting, and it would definitely appeal to a middle school girl. ( )

There was just something off about this book that made it not quite as interesting as Martin's other books. Part of it was that you could tell the mother was going to leave straight from the beginning... and maybe the rest has to do with how calm Ellie, the main character was. When things fall apart, you expect some amount of screaming and crying... but really there was none of that. She continued to be strong for her family. Which, you know, good for her, but really it made the book no fun to read. The only exciting part came when she ran away to NYC to see her mother, but that section was much too short and really could have been better. ( )

This is another post Baby-Sitter's Club book from Ann M Martin, and like A Corner of the Universe, it's a thoughtful, quiet and reflective read. Eleanor Roosevelt Dingman is the main character, a scruffy girl from Witch Tree Lane, entering the sixth grade in the middle of 1963. Her mother is a frustrated starlet, so eager to see her name in lights somewhere that she neglects, and later abandons her family, running away to the stages of New York.

Ellie ends up running her family, while also acting as the unofficial leader of the Witch Tree Lane kids. No one on Witch Tree Lane is considered 'proper' – Selena Majors lives with her illegitimate child; the Lauchaires are foreign; the Levins are bohemian and Jewish; and at the end of the street live the elderly female couple who look after the tree the lane is named for, as well as acting as parents and grandparents for all the children on the street.

The lane seems to be cursed – mail boxes are destroyed and messages painted onto fences and driveways. The children are considered outcasts at school – Ellie and her friend Holly are seriously physically bullied. And then Doris leaves.

Martin has always dealt with 'issues' in her books – from losing a parent in With You and Without You to divorce and diabetes in the Baby-Sitter's Club books. In both Here Today and A Corner of the Universe the issues are set against a historical backdrop – where things are hidden and tucked away, rather than being openly discussed. In some ways this lends a rosy haze to the book, but in other ways it makes the story more disturbing – there is a level of abuse that we would be aghast at today.

The book is very well written and the characters are layered and interesting. I enjoyed it fully, and look forward to more young adult books by Martin. ( )