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Letters In The Attic
 
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Letters In The Attic [Hardcover]

Bonnie Shimko SHIMKO (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

Price: $23.50 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
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Book Description

September 1, 2002
Lizzy McMann, a feisty twelve-year-old, lives with her immature mother and Manny, her father (she thinks) in a fleabag Phoenix hotel.

One night, Manny’s sudden announcement that he wants a divorce forces mother and daughter to move to upstate New York to live with Lizzy’s grandmother and grandfather—a mixed blessing.

At school, Lizzy befriends, then falls in love with, Eva Singer, who is dyslexic, looks like Natalie Wood and lives right down the street.

Like all girls her age, Lizzy has to deal with her first period, her first bra and her first boyfriend. But what scares her most is her love for Eva.

She is also concerned with getting a new husband for Mama—especially after reading Mama’s letters that she has found in the attic. Then Eva gets a boyfriend and Mama’s life enters what seems to be a new crisis. . . . How Lizzy comes to grips with life’s strange twists and turns makes fascinating reading for adults and young readers alike.


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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A young girl's growing pains include falling for another girl in Bonnie Shimko's Letters in the Attic. In the early 1960s, Lizzy McMann moves from Arizona to upstate New York with her unstable mother after her father runs off with a hatcheck girl. There she meets her grandparents for the first time and strikes up a friendship with Eva, an eighth grader "who looks like Natalie Wood and smokes." Her one-sided attraction to Eva is instant and so are the attendant feelings of shame, confusion and jealousy. Meanwhile, she begins to learn things about her family history that help shed some light on her current circumstances. Lizzie is a charming narrator, a seventh grader hovering between na‹vet‚ and experience. She notices everything, and while sometimes the details tend to pile up and interfere with the flow of the narrative, there are enough surprises in this appealing story to keep things interesting.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Letters in the Attic is a gem! -- Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls

This well-written book has an engaging, realistic plot. -- Washington Blade

What a storyteller Bonnie Shimko is. This book is for teens on up. I love it! -- Betty DeGeneres

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 227 pages
  • Publisher: Academy Chicago Publishers (September 1, 2002)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0897335112
  • ISBN-13: 978-0897335119
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.5 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,927,085 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews
5 star:
 (8)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!!, October 9, 2002
This review is from: Letters In The Attic (Hardcover)
This is one of the best books I have read this year. It is both funny and touching by turns - and the writer has captured the trials and tribulations of adolescence to perfection.
You will come to genuinely care for the feisty heroine as she sets out on the bumpy road to womanhood and you will find yourself closing the book with a sigh of mingled satisfaction at a well-told tale - and regret that it is finished.
If you have to choose any book, make it this one. You won't regret it!!
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A heroine for eveyone, October 11, 2002
By 
Luke T. Bush (Plattsburgh, NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Letters In The Attic (Hardcover)
Heroines.

Female protagonists, if you prefer.

Being a guy I can't think of that many off the top of my head. If I had to name three, second and third place would go to Emma Peel (of TV fame, Diana Rigg of "The Avengers") and Wonder Woman (of comic book fame).

Lizzy McMann would top my list.

So who's Lizzy McMann? Like the other choices on my list, she's a fighter, a strong spirit who doesn't give in to adversity. But unlike Emma Peel or Wonder Woman, she doesn't possess any extraordinary talents - well, outside of dogged determination and a wicked sense of humor.

Lizzy is the heroine/female protagonist of Bonnie Shimko's novel, "Letters in the Attic." She's caught between being an adult - acting as a mother to her mother - and being an adolescent, trying to fit in with her peers, dealing with feelings of love for the first time.

Shimko has done a great job of making Lizzy a real person, a character with depth. Beating up bad guys becomes boring after a while; even an overgrown adolescent such as yours truly needs more in characterization and conflict. (Sorry, Mrs. Peel and WW, but you couldn't cut half of the adversity that Lizzy faces.)

"Letters in the Attic" is an impressive debut novel that many readers will enjoy. Lizzy McMann is a heroine for everyone.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars a wonderful read, November 19, 2002
This review is from: Letters In The Attic (Hardcover)
Bonnie Shimko has mastered the art of storytelling in her Letters in the Attic. The well-paced novel introduces us to a feisty heroine and involves us in the varied relationships she has with the other characters.

I immediately connected with the characters, especially 12-year-old Lizzy. Lizzy is the girl all of us wish we could be (or could have been), displaying a maturity and dignity level beyond her young years. Additionally, Lizzy's biting wit comes alive in the dialogue. I haven't love a storybook heroine that much since Jo in Little Women.

Letters in the Attic is an engaging, quick read. It would be a great discussion starter for parents and teens. I recommend it to anyone who remembers what it is like being an adolescent.

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