In Laura Moriarty's extraordinary first novel, a young girl tries to make sense of an unruly world spinning around her. Growing up with a single mother who is chronically out of work and dating a married man, 10-year old Evelyn Bucknow learns early how to fend for herself.
Offering an affecting portrayal of a troubled mother/daughter relationship, one in which the daughter is very often expected to play the role of the adult, the novel also gives readers a searing rendering of the claustrophobia of small town midwestern life, as seen through the eyes of a teenage girl. Evelyn must come to terms with the heartbreaking lesson of first love -- that not all loves are meant to be -- and determine who she is and who she wants to be. Stuck in the middle of Kansas, between best friends, and in the midst of her mother's love, Evelyn finds herself . . . inThe Center of Everything.
I read it in fifth or sixth grade (so not a book to read in fifth grade), but I just finished reading it again. Second book I've ever successfully reread.
So, the setting is 1980-something (it follows the main character through her life), Kansas.
The main, main, main character is Evelyn Bucknow and she's ten at the beginning of the book. There's also her mom, Tina, and her grandma, Eileen, and her friends Deena, Travis, and Libby.
Basically, Evelyn's life sucks. It starts out with her dad leaving before she was born, and that kind of explains her mom too. Her mom eventually finds someone that she thinks will leave his wife and marry her instead, but she just ends up getting pregnant. But that happens later in the book . . . so just forget that part.
Evelyn Bucknow is a cute little kid in the beginning of the book and you don't really know much about her until the middle of the book. I don't really know what to say about her, she's your typical little kid. She's got friends (one of them being Travis, her neighbor) and she's got enemies (Traci Carmichael) and she lies to her mom as she gets older. Just like everyone else.
I guess when Evelyn is ten, Tina--her mom--gets pregnant with a guy she thinks will leave his wife to marry her instead. When Tina finally has the baby, he's premature and retarded. His name is Samuel.
Evelyn meets Deena and they become good friends until Travis (who Evelyn obviously has a crush on) starts asking Evelyn about Deena and they start dating. So, we hate Travis. We hate Deena, too. Travis is a thief, too, and he steals some things from Traci for Evelyn when Evelyn gets in a full-on fist fight with her in fourth grade.
AH! I almost forgot her grandma, Eileen. How could I? That's my middle name! There's a lot of little connections with her grandma, but I'll put those at the end of the review, skip them if you want but they actually are kind of cool! Anyways, Eileen was really young when she had Tina and Tina was young when she had Evelyn, so instead of calling her 'grandma', Evelyn is told to call her Eileen.
Well, all I can say is that I'm glad I don't have Evelyn's life. It's not great, to say the very, very least. I feel bad for her. And I just wish Travis would have noticed Evelyn!
Alright, now those things I said I would say about her grandmother Eileen. For one, my grandma's name is Eileen. For two, in the book, her grandma says that her mother (or maybe her grandmother) had thirteen kids. My grandma's mother had thirteen kids. Also, later in the book, Evelyn says she might end up going to Ireland, and her grandmother says, "Look up my ancestors! I'm from Ireland!"--alright so I'm paraphrasing, but that's basically what she said. And my grandma is from Ireland! What a coincidence, right? I was freaking out. Like, seriously I think I was hyperventilating.
Anyways, I'm sure this book has won some awards (I have no idea) because it's amazing and heart-warming and it makes you cry because you're pretty much living Evelyn's life.
So, just put it on your TBR list. Right now, please.
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