Thoughts before reading:
I've never read this one before, but it definitely sounds like one that good be either really good or really bad. Regardless, I'm just happy to be back to the regular series after the mess that was Super Mystery #2...
The basics:
It's the last day of Christmas vacation (it's been a really long holiday season this time around too), and Logan and Kristy come over to Mary Anne's to help take down decorations. The three enjoy a peaceful last day of vacation together.
Back in school the next day, Mary Anne's English class is starting a Shakespeare unit, and to kick it off they're doing a group project called "Meet Mr. Bill", where they pick a topic relating to the bard's life to present to the class. The groups are assigned, and Mary Anne ends up with her friend Amelia, a boy named Gordon, and Barbara, who's Amelia's best friend. They decide to do "What Was Happening in Shakespeare's World?" as their topic.
Mary Anne invites her group over to her house after school so they can start working on ideas. They decide to call their project "William Tells All". She comes up with the idea to make it a newspaper, and they all have fun thinking of column ideas. Amelia, in particular, has a lot of good ideas, and by the time they're done working Mary Anne's really excited about the project.
Amelia leaves Mary Anne's house a bit early because her family's going out to dinner. Mary Anne's in a great mood all evening, proud of herself for speaking up with ideas, and looking forward to working on them with her group. Right before bed, she starts a letter to Dawn. While writing she hears some sirens outside, which makes her feel momentarily uneasy, but she goes to bed soon after.
The next day at school, she learns that Amelia's family was hit by a drunk driver the night before, and Amelia was killed. Over the next few days, she also hears that the drunk driver didn't even have a license, because he'd been stopped four prior times for drunk driving. Kristy takes the news extra hard, to Mary Anne's surprise. She's unable to even focus on running the BSC, a first. Mary Anne's in shock, but vows to take care of her and be the strong one, since Kristy's always done the same for her.
The funeral is also coming up, and Mary Anne's nervous about attending, so she visits a grief counselor for some help beforehand. During the service, all Mary Anne can think of is the unfairness of life. (I really don't blame her... this is a hard lesson to learn.)
Mary Anne's English teacher offers to let them do an easier project, but they decide to do their original one, especially since it included Amelia's ideas, in her memory. They also decide to dedicate the project to her.
Kristy continues to really struggle, upset about the drunk driver. Mary Anne suggests that they start their own chapter of S.A.D.D. (Students Against Drunk Driving). Kristy loves the idea, and is immediately off and running with ideas. Having something positive to focus on does wonders for her, too.
The S.A.D.D. idea really ends up taking off. The SMS paper runs a story about it, Logan hands out brochures, and Watson gives the girls the run of his office to work on it. Kristy's thrilled, but Mary Anne just feels empty. She starts sleeping more, has trouble focusing, and just feels all around hopeless. During the first S.A.D.D. meeting, everyone else is bursting with ideas, but she can't even make herself feel excited.
After arriving home, she sees Dr. Reese's number still hanging on the family bulletin board. Remembering how much it helped to see her before, Mary Anne calls to make an appointment. She starts attending sessions shortly after, and Dr. Reese helps her to see that her feelings are a normal part of grief, and she needs to allow herself to mourn. At her suggestion, Mary Anne starts an "Amelia journal" and looks at old pictures.
Meanwhile, Dawn's been writing Mary Anne letters about a problem she's having in California. There's a vacant lot in her neighborhood that's full of trash, and during one of her sitting jobs, Erick Dewitt fell there and got cut by a rusty nail. This prompted Dawn to try and solve the problem. Another sitting charge, Stephie, had the idea to turn the lot into a garden. Dawn and her club organized a big clean up after, filling 85 bags with trash. From there, they made a beautiful garden in the lot, without the owner's permission (he didn't respond to their letters). He showed up after the fact and told them they could continue, but does warn them that at any time his plans for the lot could change.
When she receives Dawn's letter about the garden, Mary Anne has the idea to plant a memory garden at SMS for Amelia. Everyone loves the idea, and after a few anxious weeks, the plan is approved by the school board, and they are granted a nice space in the courtyard. Hundreds of people attend the groundbreaking, and there are many beautiful speeches given about Amelia. Mary Anne finally feels some peace.
Timeline:
It's January. Amelia passed away on January 4th, one of the rare times we're given a specific date.
Misc. thoughts:
*Ghostwritten by Jahnna Beecham and Malcolm Hillgartner.
*Mary Anne and Sharon discuss their house being a fire hazard, and how there's a smoke alarm in every room. I wonder if the authors had already planned that there would be a fire storyline later on.
*Mary Anne's New Year's resolutions: Do better in English, write more letters to Dawn, and try to be a little more outgoing. Yawn, really boring stuff.
*No chapter 2 recap or BSC meeting! It's been awhile since that formula was mixed up.
*This is yet another book with some good eating: cheese enchiladas, Italian pastas...
*So much is made of Mary Anne being shy, but I was shy in school, and my experience was nothing like hers, especially in this book. In the past she's been scared of group projects or attention, but in here she's excited to do the group project, reading the list of topics to her group, and unfazed by the upcoming presentation, as well as the icebreaker in homeroom that they are made to do. She's also saying hi to tons of kids in the halls, then she invites her whole group to her house. Can you say plot device? I would have been too shy for any one of these things...
*Claudia's working on a Rube Goldberg invention, her latest project.
*The project Mary Anne's group comes up with is actually a good idea, and the kind of schoolwork I enjoyed. Among other things, they have ideas for columns featuring reviews of Shakespeare's plays, poems of the day, Elizabethan advice columns, gossip columns, and classifieds selling things like old wagons (pgs 38-39).
*This story would have been a lot more impactful if we'd heard about this character before. I think she was mentioned in passing once or twice, but we don't know anything about her until this book, or even that she was friends with Mary Anne. They had countless options to improve on this concept.
*Also, this book could really have done without babysitting chapters. They broke up the seriousness of the main storyline, and were really awkward.
*Mary Anne calls Tigger "Mousekins". Awww.
*This book discusses S.A.D.D. and the evils of drunk driving a lot. All very valuable info, but the target BSC audience is awfully young to benefit much from any of it. When I was reading these books, I was still 6-8 years away from turning 16 and getting a license.
*Sharon supporting Mary Anne in here was very sweet. You can tell how close they've gotten.
*Over 1,000 people attended Amelia's funeral, including reps from S.A.D.D.
*At this time, 1996, according to this book 17,000 people a year were killed by drunk drivers.
*I loved that we finally saw content about Mary Anne seeing her therapist included in a book, instead of just mentioned in passing later. This sort of thing could really help kids who struggle with a mental health problem, grief, or stress. The sessions we get to read in here were really top notch too, extremely well done.
*Peaches is pregnant again, about 6 months along.
*Amelia has a little brother, Josh, in the 6th grade. Poor kid.
*They say the garden will be planted and finished in May, so if not for the time loop Mary Anne's class would be out of the school a few weeks after it was completed. She'd probably never personally spend any time there.
*This was definitely the best Mary Anne book. I actually liked her in here, for once, especially her supporting Kristy.
Books mentioned:
*Timetables of History, by Bernard Grun
*Henry V, by William Shakespeare
My rating:
This book was hard for me to read, because I lost someone really special this year, and I also lost a friend in 8th grade. Based on both experiences, this book was really well done. 4.5 stars.
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