Another Day - Hardcover

Sachs, Marilyn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0525457879 ISBN 13: 9780525457879

Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers, 1997

Synopsis

Fourteen-year-old Olivia copes with the breakup of her parents' marriage, the death of her grandfather, and her best friend's transfer to another school by adopting a neglected pup and learning to take responsibility for her own life.

About this title

Review:

Sometimes change--any change, even when it's for the better--feels frightening. When her mother walks out and her grandfather dies, Olivia becomes frozen in the past. The whole world feels threatening to her. She wants everything to return to how it used to be. Life never stays the same, though, and it takes a few miracles (including a dirty, neglected poodle named Lulu) to help Olivia see that the future can bring along some nice surprises. Here, prolific writer Marilyn Sachs paints a poignant and realistic portrait of a 14-year-old girl struggling to make sense of her parents' divorce.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 4-7. Olivia Diamond is 14 when her grandfather dies and her mother walks out on the family. The girl and her father decide to move in with Grandma, now widowed, but there is too much sorrow, anger, and/or denial for any of them to move forward with their lives. Olivia becomes jealous of her mother's new boyfriend and his daughters, who seem to have replaced her in her mother's affections. Her grandmother acts listless and distracted, and her father spends his days withdrawn with his computers. The stage is hereby set for some significant agents of change, and they come along, as Grandpa always said, with the arrival of another day. Grandma meets a new man, and Olivia overcomes her fear of dogs as she finds herself the owner of a tiny, neglected poodle named Lulu. Even her father is forced to come out of his shell when Olivia's dismal performance in algebra requires his skill as a tutor. Occasionally events seem too facile, as when Olivia suddenly sheds her long-standing terror of dogs, finding that her devotion to Lulu almost compensates for the departure of her mother. But overall, Sachs has rendered an optimistic, engaging third-person tale of a family coming to terms with the challenge of change.?Susan W. Hunter, Riverside Middle School, Springfield, VT
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0525457879
• ISBN 13: 9780525457879
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176