The Museum of Intangible Things by Wendy Wunder

(Jacket design: Liz Dresner Jacket Photo: Michael Frost)

Hannah and Zoe are best friends. They live in a two star town in New Jersey that offers nothing more than a future attending the community college and landing an unrewarding job nearby at best. Both want more than what they were given and what lies ahead for them, but both go about it in different ways.

Hannah is girl aware that she deserves more but keeps her expectations low. Her parents, divorced, focus more on their issues rather than trying to make Hannah’s life easier or even better. Her dad, an alcoholic weatherman, told her from a young age that he isn’t paying for college and instead give her a small rolling hot dog stand to sell hot dogs to save for school. Her mother is completely uninvolved with Hannah, because after a divorce and midlife, it seems her mother thinks this is as good as it gets, with her job at the DMV and watching Dr. Oz. Hannah herself does have dreams to one day visit Sweden and to have a chance with Danny Spinelli, her crush since that time he kissed her back in 6^th grade. Danny drives the ice truck around the lake’s beaches where Hannah normally sets up her hot dog stand making it possible to see each other from a distance but Danny is with a cheerleader, Rebecca, making it not possible for her to muster the strength to speak to him.

Zoe is your typical beautiful girl, who you learn early on has bipolar disorder, that be due to her age or the disorder is overly flirty, wild and free. Despite that, she is perceptive and supportive of Hannah and her eight year old brother, Noah, who due to his Asperger’s speaks nothing but the cosmos and fails to grasps emotions.  Zoe creates the Museum of Intangible Things, a collection of installations she made depicting emotions like Pride, Sadness/Depression, and Sloth/Laziness for Noah to learn these said emotions.

While at a party hosted by Zoe’s current object of lust, Ethan, the girls get drunk. Hannah has an encounter with Danny, and in the morning realizes that Zoe is missing. Hannah finds her at the other side of the lake, and that’s when it is notable that something is wrong with Zoe. This, along with an incident involving her drunk father, Hannah and Zoe (more so Zoe) decide that road trip is what they need. On road trip, Zoe begins to show Hannah her version of the Museum of Intangible things like insouciance, audacity, gluttony, and a few others in order to get Hannah to stop catering to others. However, it apparent to the reader that Zoe isn’t in the best frame of mind the further they go on with the trip, ultimately leading to a startling ending.


Where to begin! I really wanted to like this book and kept reading thinking it has to get better. The cover is a bit misleading, looks a lot more soft and whimsical than it actually is. I am disappointed that the author made the ending as she did, and overall more disappointed that she brings in Danny Spinelli as a crutch for Hannah later on in the book. Hannah was self-reliant and her only real support was Zoe and then the author swoops Danny in to rescue Hannah and Hannah just curls up in his lap like a kitty and in doing so leaves her friend Zoe out to dry. So much for friendship. Which is even more annoying given that the author ends the first chapter saying, “And we vowed: never to let each other down. There is no stronger bond than the one that gets you through childhood. This is our story.” 
If you read it, I think you’d agree that the ending of this book could have been altogether different if Hannah wasn't distracted with Danny. What I hope people take away from this book if they do read it, is that mental issues are real and not as prettily packaged as they are with Zoe. Also, that you don’t need a boy to rescue you.

A.B. 

Sure Signs of Crazy by Karen Harrington

 

(Cover art by Gray 318)

Sarah Nelson's best friend is a plant, she keeps two diaries and she writes letters to Atticus Finch. This would make her quirky in the eyes of many, except for Sarah it's a daily struggle to try and remain sane while dealing with the typical troubles of a tween (first kiss attempts and crushes) and an emotionally absent father who turns to bourbon to cope. What is it that Sarah Nelson and her father have to cope with? Sarah's mother went crazy one day and attempted to drown Sarah and her twin brother when they were two years old while their father was at work. Once her brother was buried and her mother sent away to an institution, her father was tried for failing to protect the children. Now, ten years later, Sarah and her father have moved 4 times and fear a time someone recognizes them from those awful events yet again, but overall try an lead an normal life. Newly 12 years old, Sarah has problems both her own and unexpected to deal over the summer with while keeping watch for signs of going crazy like her mother.    

 

This is such a charming book!  Sarah has a pretty mature and sarcastic voice, which is believable since is mixed in with some thoughts that are very much naive and belong to a 12 year old. What really is nice to see is that Sarah holds a sense of humor about things, especially when she talks to her plant. Overall, I think this would be a great book who kids and teens who have an absent parent or don't have a strong bond with either parent or feel bad traits or behavior of a parent is eventually to be inherited. What I love about this book in particular, is that Sarah is dealing with typical problems for a girl her age yet at the same time learning how to deal with some of the more heavy issues from her past and relationship with her father, and that to me is much more realistic of life. One doesn't get the privilege of dealing with just one major problem at a time in life, like some novels setup for their main character.  Sarah's story is a message about having more courage and learning to lean on your own self and that's always a good lesson to read. 

A.B.