Semiprecious [Paperback]

D. Anne Love (Author)

Book Description

It's the middle of summer in Mirabeau, Texas, but already Garnet Hubbard looks forward to fall -- to entering seventh grade and becoming a teenager at last. With Opal, her beautiful and popular fourteen-year-old sister, as her guide, Garnet is sure to have a great year. But everything changes when their mother, Melanie, packs them up and heads for Nashville, determined to fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming a country singer. Almost before they know it, Melanie drops the girls at her sister's house in Oklahoma, assuring them she'll be back just as soon as she's settled in Tennessee. But when a few days turn into a few weeks and beyond, with no Melanie in sight, the girls begin to realize what has happened.

While Opal soon becomes one of the most popular girls in school, her younger sister struggles. For Garnet, getting used to her new life means trying to figure out how to have pride in herself when it seems she has little to offer the world and the odds are stacked against her. With only each other to lean on, Melanie's "precious gems" must learn to live with the hand they've been dealt and to accept the changing face of their family.

Set in the early 1960s and beautifully told by D. Anne Love, Semiprecious is a powerful, poignant, and often funny coming-of-age novel that will stay with readers long after the turn of the final page.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-7–Feisty Garnet Hubbard, 12, endures a difficult school year without her parents. Her father is in the hospital recovering from severe burns sustained in a work-related accident. Her mother, Melanie, intent on pursuing her dream of becoming a country-and-western singer in Nashville, has taken Garnet and her older sister, Opal, to live with their Aunt Julia. Rural and deeply conservative Willow Flats, OK, in the early 1960s is different from the girls hometown in Texas, and they miss their old way of life. They are also worrying about their father and having to deal with their mothers selfish betrayal and abandonment. By the end of the school year, they are happy to be going home to their healed dad, yet sorry about leaving their new friends and their aunt. That they are not reunited with their mother teaches Garnet about some of the costs–not only to oneself, but to others–of pursuing ones dreams. Loves descriptions are nicely evocative of a different time and place, but it is the intriguing questions she poses that make her an author to watch.–Catherine Ensley, Latah County Free Library District, Moscow, ID
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Gr. 4-6. Reluctant to leave their small-town Texas home, Garnet, almost 13, and her older sister, Opal, drag their heels when their mother orders them into the truck, drives to an even smaller town in Oklahoma, and dumps them with her sister, an aunt they have never met. Mama heads for Nashville with stars in her eyes and a new guitar in the back of the pickup, leaving Garnet, Opal, and Aunt Julia to pick up the pieces and make the best of their lives together. With a new school to navigate and little money for food and clothing, Garnet tries to find her way while planning how to make her family whole again. The many references to music and events of the 1960s will resonate less with young readers than the timeless emotions of the main characters. And in the convincing first-person narrative, Garnet proves a keen observer and reporter of her own mixed emotions as well as the actions and attitudes of others. An involving novel of hurt, healing, and adjustment. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books (October 20, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689873891
• ISBN-13: 978-0689873898
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 6.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,076,551 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Semiprecious, June 4, 2007

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Semiprecious (Hardcover)

If you've ever had a bad day, you would have an idea of what Garnet was going through. In this book, Garnet has bad days for a whole year. With few simple mercies, Garnet manages to survive. Garnet learns that, when the going gets tough, the tough can get going.
Garnet is a twelve-year-old girl who has lived in Texas all her life. Until one muggy August day in the early 1960's, her mother decides to pick up and move to Nashville. Garnet and her older sister, Opal, are dropped off at their aunt's house in Willow Flats, Oklahoma. Meanwhile their mother settles into Nashville, promising to come back before the beginning of the school year. I'll let you read the book to figure out what happens.
I enjoyed this book very much. Like most books, Semiprecious has parts that readers like and parts that readers don't like. What this reader liked about this book is that Garnet persevered through being lonely, and being unpopular. If you have ever been new somewhere, you would know that it is not always pleasant to be new. Yet even though Garnet was new, and had a tendency to run off, she kept going. What I did not like about this book is that it was monotonous. Basically, it is the same thing every day with a few twists and turns. Garnet ran into troubles, she had a bad day, repeat day. But these monotonous things also made it more interesting when the exciting things happened.
Semiprecious is a good example of what some girls are going through in their lives. Garnet is a good girl with a relatively, bad life. But Garnet learned that she could get through it by willing herself to hold on just long enough for her dad to bring her and Opal home. I would tell anybody, to read Semiprecious. It is a great book and I think all tween-age girls would enjoy it.
Over all, Semiprecious is a good book and I enjoyed it. There were some parts that I didn't like but there were plenty that I did like. Garnet has learned an important lesson that this reviewer thinks everybody should learn: That when the going gets tough, the tough can get going.

5.0 out of 5 stars Semiprecious, March 24, 2007

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Semiprecious (Hardcover)

I picked up "Semiprecious" at my local library without reading the back cover.
I thought it would be terrible, but to my surpise, Semiprecious is one of my favorite books.
All the recent books I've read, have been the same old same old.
But with the 1960 as the setting, it brings a completly new setting, and loveable characters that you can't help thinking about even after you closed the book at the last page.
And don't let the recomended ages fool you--- Semiprecious is a great read for anyone.

5.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too, December 3, 2006

By 

TeensReadToo "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Semiprecious (Paperback)

Garnet Hubbard is having a fairly good summer and is even excited about the prospect of entering seventh grade in the fall. Her life in Mirabeau, Texas, is filled with family and friends. All of that changes overnight.

Self-centered Melanie Hubbard, Garnet's mother, decides to seek her fortune as a country singer in Nashville. Because Garnet's father works on an oil tanker in the Gulf, Garnet and her sister are dropped off at Aunt Julia's when their mother runs off. The two girls begin life on their spinster aunt's lonely homestead outside the dusty Oklahoma town of Willow Flats.

Life in Willow Flats is dull and boring. School starts with pretty, popular Opal fitting right in, while Garnet's days are filled with teasing and taunting from the locals. News of an accident on the oil tanker and their father's serious injury creates worry for an already stressed Garnet. And when his disability checks never seem to arrive, Aunt Julia must resort to selling prized possessions and seeking help from welfare to keep the girls fed and clothed.

D. Anne Love does a superb job describing Garnet's frustration toward her absent mother, her attempts to fit in as part of Willow Flats, and the discovery of previously hidden talents and future dreams. Garnet's story will tug at the heartstrings of anyone who has suffered disappointments from those they love and found the courage to carry on despite them.

Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"