Review: Every Day After by Laura Golden

Every Day After by Laura Golden.

Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: June 2013
List Price: $15.99
ISBN-13: 9780385743266

Review: I will sacrifice what ever it takes to keep my Mama away from the mental asylum and ME out of an orphanage, Lizzie explained. Lizzie Hawkins is a 12-year-old girl who lives in Alabama, southern Alabama with a lot of people counting on her, especially her mother. This is the book of the century. The bank is about to take Lizzie's house. She must now figure out how to keep the bank from taking her house. But, how?

Lizzie Hawkins has a very harsh life of her own. Lizzie's dad could not handle all of the stress of debt and the bank threatening to take their home, so he left them. Her mother has gone into a very deep depression, due to this, and can no longer take care of Lizzie. Lizzie is now left with the bank, her mother, and the house resting on her shoulders. The town's psychologist wants to see her mom to make sure she's okay. Lizzie cannot let the doctor see her mother in the condition that she is in right now; therefore she is doing whatever it takes to distract him away from her mother. She is very apprehensive that he will take her to a mental asylum and Lizzie to an orphanage, where she belongs. Can Lizzie keep her house without any help at all? All hope is lost for Lizzie and her mother. Lizzie must now figure out how to pay the bills, take care of her mother, and conquer the most difficult challenge of her life.

Laura Golden's elaborative and engaging novel makes you feel like you are actually in the story feeling all of the character's emotions and struggles throughout the book. Every time you start a new chapter, you learn more and more about each character's complex thoughts, decisions and actions. Now, some readers might struggle and may feel that the vocabulary is impenetrable. Also, Golden shows the solitary struggles that Lizzie Hawkins goes through each and every day. The author develops each and every character very meticulously which made your eyes just keep moving and I couldn't put it down, no matter how hard I tried! Lizzie learns that it's ok to, "É. play the cards your dealt," and it's fine if you need to ask for help every once an awhile. Or in other words, when you are faced with a problem, you should not get frustrated, but figure out ways that you can improve the situation. She teaches us that there are always other things that we can do to improve the hardship that we are faced with. You don't always have to solve the problem in one try. I believe that this book is meant for any one who likes books inspirational characters, vivid, outspoken characters and themes as you go through the book. I think that it would be meant for ages 9 to 14 because of some of the books intricate scenarios. This novel gives you a reason to turn mighty sour lemons into sweet lemonade!

Review written by Anneliese (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Random House for providing a copy of Every Day After for this review.

Have you read Every Day After? How would you rate it?