Friendship

This review published by Brigham Young University's Children's Book and Media Review

Elvis Ruby was supposed to win the biggest reality TV show, Tween Star. He doesn’t. Cecilia is supposed to be able to hear the music of the trees that played when she was born. She doesn’t. When Elvis runs away to the middle of New Jersey to avoid the press after he panics on stage and loses the competition, he meets Cecilia. The two of them explore their interesting town to discover their own music in the midst of disguising Elvis, helping Elvis’s Aunt Emily and cousin Millicent keep the press off his tail, and learning more about their own secrets.

The parts about the music in the trees and the jersey devil were interesting, but they didn’t make a lot of sense and sometimes felt strange in a book that was otherwise somewhat realistic. However, the characters were interesting, with Elvis dealing with the aftermath of disappointing himself and other people and Cecelia refusing to go along with the crowd. It would have been nice to have more description of why Elvis froze up on stage when he'd had performance experience in the past. It's a fun read without a lot of depth but a good message about finding your own path. ( )

children's realistic fiction (4th-6th grades); themes of friendship, identity/being true to oneself. Great characters with a narrative storytelling voice that had a way of making the reader feel included, enjoyable storyline--multiple characters had separate things going on, and they were each more or less resolved at the end. ( )

Book used for Bookstore assignment. ( )

So much fun: I was completely taken in by Nan Marino's fun story about Elvis Ruby (think Justin Beiber), a world-wide known tween singing sensation who needs to get away from it all, hiding out at his aunt and cousin's Pancake Parlor, deep in the New Jersey Pinelands. Just an all-around great yarn! Grades 4-6. ( )