I, Emma Freke

What if you found yourself in sixth grade more advanced than the other students, and much taller than them? Fitting in would be difficult. All of these problems plague the main character. Add to this her dysfunctional family and her name Emma Freke and you have the set up for a funny book. I felt sorry for Emma. I wanted someone to take her in and care for her. Then I realized she'd been taking care of herself for quite some time. This is one of those books I know many kids and adult will relate to. Even through dysfuction family is family.

Heard as an audiobook. While Wisconsin was somewhat parodied (gotta watch how my home state is characteried!), this was a very enjoyable book. Emma is raised by a "hippie" kind of mother and at age 12 feels she is the primary responsible person in her household. She doesn't look physically like any family or local residents and feels friendless...except for a much younger adopted neighbor. While her mother has never told her anything about her father, she unexpectedly has a chance to go to a family reunion held by his family. She learns a lot about herself and tolerance during that vacation.

I've decided to return to young adult books periodically. They contain such heart-felt wisdom, of children of varying ages handling situations that were presented to them, and they must be dealt with. The only way out is through, and these tough kids have to learn at an early age, that for many, their lives are tragic and very challenging.

In this gem of a book, Emma Freke defines herself by her name. She feels that she really is a Freak. Very tall with flaming red hair, kids at school are mean and love to taunt her with her name. What a Freke (Freak)! And, like many, when their peers are nasty, they head back inward to that safe spot where they might process internally and find ways to become and overcome! Emma finds solace at the local show more library where the librarian guides her and introduces her to those who feel as she does.

Emma hates her life. Her mother was young when she was born. She has no idea of who her father is, and believes her mother doesn't know either. Believed to be on a spectrum of challenged in ability to learn schoolwork, truly it is her life that holds her back. She is strong, but it is very difficult when her mother doesn't care enough to cook, or go to her school meetings with the guidance counselor. In many ways, Emma is the mother in this situation, and trying to navigate life with a hippie mom who refuses to accept responsibility in life, makes it harder to concentrate in a hostile school environment.

Emma has a small, spunky, outspoken friend who helps her to work through some rather heavy things. How do you operate when at your mother finally remembers it is your birthday, buys a small store made cake and announces you do not need school because her present is the best -- a rambling box of various out dated encyclopedias, many editions are missing.

When Emma attends a reunion, encouraged by her mother, to meet some of her relatives, this is at the demand of Emma who insists knowing about her father and his family. At the reunion she finds solace being with people who look like she does, but are on the range of obsessive control rules. A mother who has no rules, and now a family that has too many rules.

Through it all, she overcomes, and embraces her mother's wackiness, coming to the conclusion that she really does care. show less

This book is absolutely wonderful! There were so many things I enjoyed about this book, so I'll get started with my favorite: Emma. Feeling completely out of place in the world and not fitting in with anyone in her life, including herself, she feels lost and frustrated. Being abruptly thrust from her New Age free spirit mom's guidance into her Stepford-esque family reunion allows her to carve her own existence in between the two. She is a very strong girl who doesn't realize how brave she is until she has someone to stand up for, because she never stood up for herself. After asserting herself, she learns to become comfortable in her own skin, which isn't an easy feat for a 6 foot tall 12 year old girl...Aside from the great characters show more in this book, I loved the writing. It was funny, simple, subtle, quirky and fully engaging. It's all told from Emma's point of view, and the author does a great job of sucking the reader right in and feeling what Emma is feeling...Everyone can relate to this book, because we all have a bit of a Freke in us...

To read the full review over at The Book Buff, click here: http://thebookbuff.blogspot.com/2011/01/i-emma-freke.html

-Kate the Book Buff show less

This book made me laugh from the first mention of 'I, Emma Freke' up until its last pages. The childish way of storytelling and the way that the main character, Emma, claims to be an adult is endearing, funny, and hit very close to home. I mean, who has never experienced being out of place and thinking that being an adult is way cooler than remaining a kid/teenager? Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it from I, Emma Freke by Elizabeth Atkinson.

Summary from NetGalley:

"What's in a name? I, Emma Freke is a charming search-for-identity story about Emma―the only "normal" member of her quirky family. Her flighty, New Age mom seems to barely have time for a daughter, especially one who annoyingly spoils her mom's youthful façade. Emma's show more well-meaning grandpa is clueless. And her only friends are the local librarian and a precocious 10-year-old adopted by the two old ladies next door.
Smart, shy, and nearly six feet tall, Emma struggles to fit in at school, so she jumps at the opportunity to "home school" until that too turns into another of mom's half-baked ideas. The real crisis comes when she gets an invitation to The Freke Family Reunion, and her fellow Frekes aren't at all what she expects. While Emma desperately tries to find her niche, she discovers that perhaps it’s better to be her own "freak" than someone else's Freke."

I can so relate with Emma. Maybe not with the name, although I do have some issues with mine (my real full name sounds to me like a character from a Spanish television series), but with the appearance. I used to be the tallest girl in class in my late elementary and high school days. Everyone would look strangely at me, and everyone asked me if I play some sport or another. They always seem to think I'm playing volleyball or basketball so when I tell them I'm not really interested in sports, they say the same thing every time: "Too bad, your height will make you a star." As if not being a very good athlete won't affect my playing in any way. When joining clubs, other people always think that just because I'm taller than everyone else (yes, including most guys) makes me more mature and smart and they all want me to head one club after another, forgetting that running one club precludes you from heading another (I was editor-in-chief of the school paper, and they all want me to be president of the Science Club even if I'm not that much of a Science geek, the Drama Club even if I was only there once, and other clubs I don't even have interest in). It also sort of affects the 'making friends' part because teenagers are almost always intimidated by my height, and their first impression of me is always 'bitchy' or 'snobbish' even if I'm none of those things. For Emma, most of the above are true, but kids her age tend to think they are 'above' her, or that she's not very important, and I can totally say that she is partly to blame because she herself tends to hide inside her shell when confronted by other teenagers. She doesn't give others a chance, immediately assuming that they are just laughing at her, and that they don't like her. She never even gave being sociable a try. And, already aware that her name sounds funny, she even adds to its ridicule by saying "My mom forgot to say it out loud when I was born." Can't she just stop making a big deal out of it? Stevie had it spot on when she said that "names and words only hurt if you let them." But then, with Emma's lack of self-esteem and real maturity, I guess that's predictable.

This book was a cute tongue-in-cheek story of a typical egocentric teenager's dilemma: Not fitting it, feeling like they don't belong. There's really nothing new in here, except maybe for the Freke family reunion that showed a bunch of people acting like sheep and going with the herd. Emma was placed in two extremes: Her independent and indifferent life with her mother, and the structured, organized, and freakishly collective life with the Freke family. Somehow it's like saying that the grass is greener on the other side, only to find that it's just the same. Hopefully, these two extremes would help Emma choose her own path and her own spot on the grass. But however cute and light and very readable this story is, it's not entirely new and there is a large array of young adult fiction books devoted to this kind of issue. But then again, this is not a contest to see which book is best, and I can say that, for this book's part, it certainly made the grade. I loved the plot, the voice, and the characters are thoroughly detailed they are virtually human. I really enjoyed the humorous description of Emma's life, and there are some really laugh-out-loud moments that some 'teenage issues' books do not have. There were some parts that I felt was hurried, especially towards the ending, and I thought it would have been better if another twist was added or another chapter was written to make the story come full circle, but I guess it's for the best to leave the story at that, and let the reader think for themselves. Although the storyline is quite light, it still never fails to elicit empathy for Emma, as well as for teenagers like her who have difficulty fitting it. It makes the reader see this 'shallow' crisis through the sufferer's eyes and not just giving a story of hope and inspiration, it also teaches them how to treat these young adults well.

This book was just released November of last year, and I urge you to go get a copy of this one. You won't regret reading and re-reading this book.

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I received this book free of charge from the publisher, Lerner Publishing Group and Netgalley, in exchange for an honest and truthful review. This, in no way, affected my opinion or review of this book. show less

Emma Freke is a bit too smart, a bit too tall, and a bit too, well, "freakish" to have a name like hers (say it outloud). She would much rather spend the day working in her mother's bead shop than attempting to socialize at school and her flighty mother would rather that too, but only so she can worry about dating instead of making a living. When Emma gets an invitation to the family reunion of her father (who she doesn't know) she sees it as an opportunity to maybe finally find her people. She isn't quite prepared for what she learns about herself.

I felt really bad for Emma throughout the first half of the book, and felt like the transformation was too big for short amount of time she spent with the Frekes. Not my favorite Caudill, or show more my favorite coming of age/finding yourself story, but girls who feel left out at that age might relate and love it. show less

Emma Freke (pronounced like Am a Freak) is 12 years old and just shy of six feet tall. She has flaming red hair, is exceptionally smart, and doesn't feel like she belongs anywhere. It doesn't help that her mother sets no rules or boundaries for either Emma or herself. Emma's one solid rock is her best friend Penelope. Emma never met her father and knows nothing about him.
But out of the blue, she receives and invitation to the Freke family reunion, which her mother happily sends her to, alone. There she finds she fits in quite well (nearly everyone is overly tall and red-headed) and everyone seems to like her. But there is also a weird pall that hangs over the event, as conformity seems to be enforced with an iron fist, and the one kid, show more also 12, who won't conform, is a complete outcast from the family.
Events transpire to make a rather abrupt and completely unbelievable happy ending.
The first half of the book I really enjoyed. I liked Emma and Penelope. But when the family reunion begins, everything becomes rather unbelievable. Characters don't behave the way real people in the same situation would behave. Then, the rushed, everyone-learns-their-lesson-and-changes-for-the-better ending was quite a stretch. show less