Welcome back to school! The library is still a mess because we are supposed to move in a month at the end of September. However, we have lots of new books for you to enjoy!“We all inherit someone else’s leftovers. They’re a part of your Blue Plate Special. A part of you,” observes Ariel, one of three teens, each from a different generation, who tell her stories in the novel Blue Plate Special by Michelle D. Kwasney. Each of the three teens is 15 or 16 when she tells her stories.
The first is Madeline in 1977 who struggles to find love and acceptance wherever she can. Her mother is a drunk and Madeline eats to find happiness, so she must deal with being overweight in addition to her family situation. It is only when she meets Tad at the local McDonald’s that Madeline starts to find acceptance.
Desiree writes in free verse in 1993. Her family life is also a struggle with a mother who refuses to see the world as it really is. She accuses Desiree of acting like a slut while she lives with her worthless boyfriend Larry. Desiree spends her time trying to avoid Larry and dreams of being with her boyfriend Jeremy. But Larry is impossible to avoid and Desiree’s life spirals out of control.
The last teen is Ariel in 2009. Ariel is being raised by a single mother also, but her mother is caring and Ariel feels that she can talk to her mother about almost anything. Anything that is except for her relationship with Shane. Shane is the new kid at school and he is good looking and cool, but he is also possessive and wants Ariel all to himself. She finds that she does not have time for her friends any more and that she spends all of her time trying to make Shane happy instead of doing what would make her happy. Ariel discovers that she must evaluate her relationship with Shane when her mother takes her to see the grandmother she had never met.
The lives of the three teens are told in separate stories until we see how it all fits together about halfway through the book. It is a really good read about love, loss and forgiveness.
