All Alone in the Universe

Debbie is losing her best friend, and doesn't know what to do about it. This is one of those rare gems of a story that is so incredibly light on plot but draws you into the emotion of the main character so well that you are surprised when it is over. It is set in the early '70s, but is equally applicable to middle schoolers now. The emotions Debbie feels, from jealousy to loneliness to joy, will reverberate in the readers much more powerfully than the sparse prose would suggest, perhaps because this book's power is that almost everyone will have had similar experiences in their life. The pencil drawings that populate many of the pages help add depth and detail to the story. The realizations Debbie comes to about life placed inside a show more book with a title that will grab the attention of anyone feeling lonely will hopefully bring many middle school readers to realize that they, too, are not all alone in the universe. show less

Debbie and Maureen have been best friends since forever, but suddenly, one summer, Maureen seems to have a new best friend, Glenna. Debbie suddenly finds herself the third wheel, and and eventually all alone. This is the first half of the book.
The second half just sort of seems to ramble around. It's pleasant, occasional funny rambling, but very little of it seems to have much to do with the first half of the book. I enjoyed the book, but was not satisfied with the resolution of Debbie's loss of Maureen. Maybe Perkin's point was that when a friend is lost, that feeling of loss just slowly gets better over time as you get involved with other people and other things. But if that was the point, it seemed somewhat vague.

A sweet story about the nature of friendship. It appears to be a simple one, but the more you think about it the more you see the layers.

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