Customer Reviews

Semiprecious

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

 

 

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.

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.

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"