Kevin Henkes

I revisited this novel because it was the only novel I fully completed while in middle school (I know that is awful, but I did not like to read). Holy cow, now I know why I liked this novel so much! I mean it seems a tad intense for my 5th grade self, but I've always been an intense kind of girl… so it makes sense that I would like something so real at such a young age. This book is about a girl names Martha Boyle, who receives a journal from her deceased classmate's mother. This deceased show more classmate's name was Olive, and Olive wrote about Martha in her journal about how nice she seemed and how she wanted to know her better. When Martha was given this journal, she was taken back and wished she could have gotten to know Olive better. Every summer Martha visits her grandmother at the coast, but this summer would be different. She couldn't stop thinking of Olive, and this is where Martha starts to write a story with the main character's name being Olive. This is when Martha's coming-of-age journey starts where she is faced with her first kiss, her first love, her first betrayal, her first heartbreak. But, this is also the start of Martha discovering who she is at a young age and starts to understand life in a different way, all thanks to Olive.

Okay, first of all, I wept like a baby. I remember crying in the 5th grade when Martha got her heart broken (as if I knew what heartbreak was like). This book is so powerful, and it covers so many deep topics. Death of a classmate, being betrayed by someone you trust, being aware of death and how short life is, and regret. Though this isn't how many teens experience their "coming of age" journey, many teens can relate to the different events that happens to Martha in this book. To have a book that shows other teens they aren't alone is so powerful and it can make such a difference. I love how this whole story flowed and how Martha developed as a character. LOVE LOVE LOVE this book so much. I would give it ten stars if I could. show less

As Martha and her family prepare for their annual summer visit to New England, the mother of her deceased classmate comes to their door. Olive Barstow was killed by a car a month earlier, and the woman wants to give Martha a page from her daughter's journal. In this single entry, the 12-year-old learns more about her shy classmate than she ever knew: Olive also wanted to be a writer; she wanted to see the ocean, just as Martha soon will; and she hoped to get to know Martha Boyle as "she is show more the nicest person in my whole entire class." Martha cannot recall anything specific she ever did to make Olive think this, but she's both touched and awed by their commonalities. She also recognizes that if Olive can die, so can she, so can anybody, a realization later intensified when Martha herself nearly drowns. At the Cape, Martha is again reminded that things in her life are changing. She experiences her first kiss, her first betrayal, and the glimmer of a first real boyfriend, and her relationship with Godbee, her elderly grandmother, allows her to examine her intense feelings, aspirations, concerns, and growing awareness of self and others. show less

A Good Day has quickly become one of my favorite picture books. This book is short and simple. This review contains more words than the book itself. But it also contains so much truth! Each character only has two sentences, but as a whole, it weaves a beautiful story of loss and redemption. It could be summarized with the following "morals", but the genius of this story is that there is no moral shared, taught, or implied. It simply presents the information and allows you to understand it show more how you will.

A bad day or a good day is all in how you look at it.
A bad situation may not be what it seems.
Sometimes your struggles lead to success.
Sometimes you experience loss because life has something better in store for you.

My sincere hope is that as I read this to my daughter on a regular basis, she will internalize the idea that one should always have hope that something good is coming just ahead. show less

Martha is surprised when her classmate Olive's mother stops by with a page from Olive's journal where she wrote about Martha. Olive was killed by a car while riding her bicycle, and Martha thinks about the ways in which she could have been a friend to Olive as her family packs and travels from Wisconsin to Cape Cod to visit Martha's grandmother, "Godbee." Most of the story takes place at Godbee's, where Martha has her first kiss from one of the neighbor boys and is betrayed by him, and show more protected by one of his brothers. Throughout, Martha ponders becoming a writer. A quiet, moving story of a girl on the cusp of adolescence (pre-social media).

Quotes

The world was changing before Martha's very eyes, and she hated it. (44)

But the things Martha could not live without at home, she barely missed when she was at her grandmother's. (54)

She felt jealous, and then silly for feeling so, and then was baffled by how changeable and brief her feelings could be. (158)

The world can change in a minute, and at the same time remain unchanged. (165) show less