Customer Reviews

Chicks with Sticks (It's a Purl Thing)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is sort of a "sisterhood of the traveling yarn" and a very enjoyable read.

Scottie cannot sleep. She has lost her beloved aunt and is grieving deeply. At the funeral a relative hands her a pair of knitting needles and teaches her to knit. Scottie is initially put off by the idea but soon finds the yarn calls to her. She finds a wonderful little knitting shop run by a remarkable woman who has a gift for matching up yarn and people. By the end of the evening three other girls from her high school have arrived at the shop and a circle of friends, "Chicks with Sticks" is born.

The girls come from very different backgrounds and are trying to find their place in high school. Both of Scottie's parents are consumed by her mother's art career and seemingly oblivious to their daughter. Amanda is the homecoming queen type but suffers from learning disabilities which undermine her confidence and her academics. The other two have their own problems and issues but they all find help and support through their knitting friendships. Despite their resolve it takes great courage for them to pull out their knitting at lunch time in the school cafeteria.

Lenhard obviously knows her knitting. She lovingly describes beautiful yarns including the colors, textures and even the smell. The girls struggle with dropped stitches and projects that go horribly wrong but their fingers have the knitting itch.

Lenhard has included knitting patterns at the end of the book. By the time you finish you will be yearning to pick up some knitting or learn how to knit.

This book sent my daughter and me to the store yesterday. We bought knitting needles and squeezed yarn balls until we found the ones that "called" to us. We have big plans.

At 41, I am hardly the target audience for this book. I loved it. I got the galley copy and can't bring myself to give it away. It treads that thin line between life's reality and the fantasies we have of high school being "fun."

I got this book yesterday and could not put it down until I was done. It is so true to knitting and friendship issues! I loved it!

I'll admit that I bought this mostly because Elizabeth is a friend, and that I'm not usually a reader of YA. But I swear to God, I read it in one sitting last night and loved it. I expected it to be a little too cute for my tastes, but the characters are very real, the identity issues totally believable, and the knitting far more compelling than I ever thought it could be. A good blend of different kinds of girls are represented, and the writing is really strong. This is something I'd give to any tweens in my life... a fabulous read!

For all those girl (and guy) knitters out there (and wannabe knitters, and people who aren't interested in knitting at all) this is the book for you! It's about a bond that is created between four very different girls through knitting. They went through friendship troubles, yet seemed to patch up their holes using knitting as a soother and calmer. I can't wait to read the sequel! I am a knitter, and enjoyed how Elizabeth used knitting terms to label each chapter. It was a lighthearted book that sent laughs and humor in each chapter! I would wholeheartedly reccomend this book to everyone!

Scottie is a 16-year-old girl who lives in present-day Chicago. Her life is changing but Scottie just wants everything to be back to the way it was. Her best friend suddenly attracts boys, new pouplar friends, and invations to parties Scottie would never imagine beung invited to. Her favorite aunt dies suddenly and her mom becomes "an It girl of Chicago's art world". Scottie even has trouble sleeping through the night now. Shure sleeping through a 10 o'clock and 4 o'clock train might seem impossible but Scottie did it for thirteen years. Well, you can't rewind time and Scottie becomes misserable. Then late one night when Scottie is rummaging through her purse(the one she hasn't touched since the funeral) and finds a tangled mass of yellow yarn wrapped around two knitting kneedles. She remembers her great-aunt teaching her how to knit at the funeral. Scottie struggles at first with the kneedles the begins to knit smoothly. She does one row, then another, and another. The steady click of medal kneedles calmed her down and she instsantly fell in love with knitting. Then she discovers KnitWit, a small knitting shop down town. The owner befriends her and helps Scottie learn many things, form purling to how to deal with her mother. At knitWit Scottie is reunited with Amanda and they become best friends again. She also meets Bella and Tay, two girls who also go to her school but she would never socialy interact with each other. The foursome become close friends. They even knit togather at the lunch table sometines.

But as always problebs beegin to occur. Tay and Amanda have crushes on two differnt boys and they are not sure how htey will take the "knitting thing". Bella was home schooled by her parents untill high school, so she strictly obeys their laws, untill one day she realizes what she is missing by being so overly obedient. Scottie's mom dosen't see her, rather she looks through her and Scottie is sick of it. Togather the girls try to resolve each others personal problems but like always, things don't go as planned, or stiched.

This is a book about a group of high school girls bonding together thru knitting. Because this is the 3rd book in the series, I would have probably enjoyed it more if I had read the other 2 but the author did a very good job of bringing the reader up to date on the characters. A good YA read.

This review was written for Connie's Book Reviews and More on Facebook.

Fifteen-year-old Scottie has trains roaring through her dreams at night, resulting in hours of early morning insomnia. It's been like this since Aunt Roz's funeral. To make it worse, she's begun to feel like a stranger in her own home-turned-art gallery. Her mother spends days in a trance creating bizarre paintings that have become the new "must-have" art, and her dad spends hours on the phone schmoozing potential buyers and scheduling the next art party.

Scottie's parents don't seem to remember she exists and Scottie fears that she's becoming invisible to her best friend, Amanda, as well. Amanda has left her for the popular clique as she developed curves that Scottie is, so far, lacking. Scottie's life is falling apart. Only a ball of yarn and a couple of needles keep her from becoming completely frayed.

Early one morning, once again wide-awake, she discovers the knitting her Aunt Lucille had pressed into her hands at her Aunt Roz's shivah, under a pile of clothes on the rug at her feet. Intrigued, she tries a stitch, surprised she can remember the "spike, loop, swish" knitting motion. One stitch turns into an entire row. Scottie feels the tension leaving her shoulders. Without thinking, she crams her knitting into her book bag as she prepares to leave for school.

Under pressure with Amanda and her new friends at lunch, Scottie whips out her swatch and ball of yarn and begins knitting. So much for being invisible. Scottie becomes so hooked on knitting that she goes in search of a store named KnitWit and finds herself staying for a free class offered by the owner, Alice. Fate intervenes and Amanda shows up, along with other girls from her school, Tay and Bella.

It doesn't take long before they become the "Chicks with Sticks" and Scottie finds comfort in finally belonging somewhere. But will the feeling last? It seems friends are dropping as often as she drops stitches. Amanda deserts her to free-form with her new knitting friends after her Learning Disability session at the college. Bella becomes so engrossed in knitting that she prefers solitude with her afghan. And Tay blames Scottie for the problems between her and Josh. And when she finally gets the nerve to tell her parents that she's a knitter, they get all excited that she's decided to be a "fiber artist," whatever that is. She turns to Alice only to find KnitWit's doors are closed on their meeting night.

Elizabeth Lenhard has created a warm, woolly read in IT'S A PURL THING. As a knitter, I found myself itching to grab my needles and feel the familiar comfort of K3, P3 of my current work-in-progress in soft homespun lavender. Teens are taking up their needles and creating beautiful works of art. I encourage you to join them. But before you do, take a moment to curl up with IT'S A PURL THING.

Reviewed by: Cana Rensberger

At this time, all the summaries and reviews on this page are from the previous two books. Here is the scoop from the inside cover of the hardback (I haven't finished it so I can't truly review it yet)

"For Scottie, Amanda, Bella, and Tay, life in Chicago is about seeking shelter. They've found it in their firelit stitch-n-[...] at Joe; in the halls of their quirky private school; in the arms of boyfriends-and always in the comfort of friendship that bonds them together.

But now the Chicks are staring down at the end of high school and it's time to contemplate life beyond the protective web of their knitty ensemble. Will the stresses of college applications and service projects, debutante balls and long-distance loves, mean the end of the Chicks? Or can this unlikely foursome bind-off the happy ending that only true friendship can craft?

The end is only the beginning for the Chicks, who return with their trademark wit and warmth along with four fabulous new projects."

I liked this latest installment to the Chicks with Sticks series. Scottie's angst really comes to a head when she realizes this is THE END of her life as she knows it.