Home for the Holidays

This was my first venture into reading a selection from this popular series. I loved it! I admit that keeping the girls and their moms straight was a challenge, and I ended up making a cheat sheet to help me out. I also thought the names of the moms were cheesy--Calliope? Seriously? Having a different girl narrate each chapter was hard to get used to at first and I had to keep going back to remind myself of who was speaking. I suppose that reading the books in order, a person would get used to that. I enjoyed getting to know the individual characters through their narratives, and was intrigued by the interweaving of the literary aspects of the book club selections read by the girls and moms. This teen tale of friendships and holiday show more angst will appeal to many female teen readers--chick lit at its most fun and zaniness. show less

Like Heather Vogel Frederick, I didn't grow up with the "Betsy-Tacy" books. They weren't a part of my childhood landscape. I only became aware of them a few years ago, and when they were republished in shiny new editions, I snapped them up eagerly, just like Emma does in Home for the Holidays. Just like for Emma, the prospect of getting to experience a literary treasure that I was unfamiliar with gave me chills. I ended up loving Betsy and all her adventures, and I couldn't have been happier when I saw that the latest installment of the Mother Daughter Book Club series included them. I knew the books would be a perfect fit for Emma, Jess, Megan, Cassidy and yes, for Becca too. Home for the Holidays is a lovely book, hitting these girls show more at uncertain times in their lives and presenting them with charity and grace. If this is the end for the book club, it would make a very nice cap, but I hope it isn't. There's still lots of great literature to be explored, and the girls still have three more years of high school! Hint, hint, Ms. Frederick. :) show less

The big conflict of this novel is unemployment for Becca's (former queen bee) dad. There are holiday trips that take the girls away from each other for the holidays, and misunderstandings that threaten the girls' friendships, but the book club comes through as things are worked out and they rally around each other.

After some frenzied lobbying from local Betsy-Tacy fanatics, Heather Vogel Frederick read the BT series and was apparently as charmed as we hoped, as she used the series in her latest Mother-Daughter Book Club book. The MDBC girls are in high school, but there's still just as much, if not more, drama in this book as the earlier ones. It was interesting to see them reading books I love this time.

I am thoroughly enjoying these books, and love following these girls throughout their lives.