– An Emotional Story That’s Hard To Put Down –
Blurb
At a time when everything is changing for Bea and her family, the important things will always stay the same. A soon-to-be classic by the Newbery Award-winning author of When You Reach Me.
After her parents’ divorce, Bea’s life became different in many ways. But she can always look back at the list she keeps in her green notebook to remember the things that will stay the same. The first and most important: Mom and Dad will always love Bea, and each other.
When Dad tells Bea that he and his boyfriend, Jesse, are getting married, Bea is thrilled. Bea loves Jesse, and when he and Dad get married, she’ll finally (finally!) have what she’s always wanted–a sister. Even though she’s never met Jesse’s daughter, Sonia, Bea is sure that they’ll be “just like sisters anywhere.”
As the wedding day approaches, Bea will learn that making a new family brings questions, surprises, and joy, and readers will discover why the New York Times called Rebecca Stead a “writer of great feeling.”
Details
- Title: The List of Things That Will Not Change
- Author: Rebecca Stead
- Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books
- Publication Date: April 7, 2020
- Print Length: 224 pages
- Click for a look inside the book
My Thoughts
This book didn’t take a long introduction to characters or the story. I became interested almost immediately. And for unusual reasons:
- The first chapter is named The Sound of Corn. And the content piqued my interest.
- Then the way the next topic was approached – Divorce
I’m sorry to say, that the topic of divorce alone didn’t do it for me because it’s so commonplace. But the way Bea’s parents announced their divorce felt quite unique. And Bea, the main character, was so believable that I could easily imagine her as she drew me into her story.
Dad said, “Things are changing, Bea. But there’s still a lot you can count on. Okay? Things that won’t ever change.
This was when they gave me the green spiral notebook and the green pen. (My favorite color is green.) In the notebook, they had made a list. The list was called Things That Will Not Change.
I started reading:
Though there are no illustrations or pictures in the book, I imagine it looked like this.
After learning that she would be having two houses, and moving back and forth between her parents, one of Bea’s first questions was to ask where her dog would be staying. She was told that Red would be staying at her mom’s house.
Bea picked up the green pen and added to the list
And that’s how this special little book and story started. And for me, it didn’t stop there. I was pulled into the story both by issues and characters. And any time your mom and dad divorce because your dad is gay, can always open up some delicate issues.
Rebecca Stead
But Stead doesn’t address these delicate issues in a didactic way, but rather through the eyes of a young middle school girl. Bea is real. She has issues. And she is full of innocent love. These things are carefully brought out when Bea visits her counselor throughout the book.
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Occasionally it is only a one-sentence gem that the counselor utters to get Bea to thinking. But take note. They are completely eye-opening and relevant. They are not accompanied by long explanations. Just thoughts.
This is a book for middle-age readers, but it is one that adults and counselors will want to read also. It shows how important adult-attitudes can be for the well-being of children going through a divorce.
And so many smaller issues, and maybe not-so-small, are also addressed. Even the fact that Bea will have a stepsister. That doesn’t usually come without some concerns.
What Concerned Me
I really had no problem with this book.
What I Liked Best
This story offered helpful thoughts, felt realistic, and wasn’t all one-sided.
My Rating
My thanks to NetGalley and Wendy Lamb for the ability to read this ARC and to give my review and thoughts regarding the book.
About the Author
. . . From Rebecca Stead’s Website (©RebeccaSteadBooks)
Click Website (Above) to discover lots more about Rebecca and her books.
I grew up in New York City, where I was lucky enough to attend the kind of elementary school where a person could sit in a windowsill, or even under a table, and read a book, and no one told you to come out and be serious (well, eventually someone did, but not right away). On those windowsills, under those tables, and in my two beds at night, I fell in love with books. (I had two beds because my parents were divorced.)
Specifically, I fell in love with fiction.
Reading books made me think about writing. (The writer Saul Bellow once said that a writer is a reader moved to emulation. That’s me.)
But I didn’t write a lot. Sometimes I just wrote down things I overheard – jokes, or snatches of conversation. You could probably fit everything I wrote before the age of 17 into one (skinny) notebook.
Much, much later, I became a lawyer (I believed that being a writer was impractical), got married, and started working as a public defender. But I still wrote stories (for adults) when I could find the time.
My first child, a fabulous son, was born. A few years later, I had another fabulous son. There wasn’t much time for writing stories after that. But I still tried.
One day, my three-year-old son, though fabulous, accidentally pushed my laptop off the dining-room table, and my stories were gone. Poof.
So. It was time to write something new. Something joyful (to cheer me up: I was pretty grouchy about the lost stories). I went to a bookstore (an independent bookstore) and bought an armload of books that I remembered loving as a kid. I read them. I went back to the store and bought more books written for children. I read them. And then I began to write again.
Some people will tell you that real writers don’t use parentheticals (which is nonsense). The most important thing to know about writing is that there are no rules.
A few fascinating interviews about my books,
my childhood, and my writing process,
among other things:
Fascinating interview #1
(“Yeah, I like to talk about weirdness.”)
Fascinating interview#2
(“Now I feel like my regular, struggling self”)
Fascinating interview #3
(“On many days, I don’t sit down to write at all.”)
Fascinating interview #4
(“And one day I just lost my sense of the book’s internal logic.”)
Fascinating interview #5
(“Guess who I’m writing a book with?”)
