January 22, 2018
Around the Year in 52 Books: A book with a title that is a whole sentence
(Please ignore the fact that the book is propped against a roll of paper towels. I was in a biology classroom when I took this picture on Friday, and this was the only way I could get some decent lighting.)
I think I have found a new favorite book as well as a new favorite author. I have never loved a character as much as I love Elsa in this book. And I can’t remember the last time I was hooked on a book only one or two pages into the first chapter.
I had this book recommended to me on Thursday last week when I was at my local library. I had been talking to one of my favorite librarians (and also my favorite local author and storyteller), and we had started talking about A Man Called Ove. She said that I would really love My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry (and I think that’s partially because of the Harry Potter references) since I loved A Man Called Ove. She also recommended Britt-Marie Was Here (which I’ll pick up hopefully tomorrow when I go back to the library), but that I should read the one pictured first and that I’ll learn more about Britt-Marie in the next book. She wasn’t wrong when she said I would love this book and I can’t wait to tell her my thoughts when I see her again.
One of the things I loved the most about this book was all of the Harry Potter references in it. Elsa, who is seven-years-old (almost eight) has a Gryffindor scarf that she refuses to go anywhere without. She’s read all seven books at least twelve times (that’s at least ten more times than myself, and that was just for the book she she liked the least). And she’s always referencing the books and, on occasion, the movies. She even pulls her parents into it, which you see at the end of the book when her mom names her baby brother Harry (after Harry Potter, of course) and when Elsa realizes her dad has been listening to the audio version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s (Sorcerer’s) Stone in the car.
I also really liked the way this story played out. I liked that Elsa had to go on a treasure hunt to find out more about her neighbors as well as her granny before she was able to find out about what was given to her through her granny’s will. I loved the idea of Elsa having to pass out these letters in which her granny is apologizing to each of the residents in the house they live in, but in the process Elsa learns all about these people she’s lived around her whole life through all of her questions that arise through her curious nature as a kid. She also learns that it’s more than okay to be different and that being different is what makes her an individual and not like everyone else in her class at school. It made for a great fairy tale (if you’d like to call it that since that’s what Elsa calls it), but it also made for a great book that I didn’t want to put down and a book that I highly recommend to everyone.