About this book:
“Just
when April Grace thought the drama was over . . .
After an automobile accident, Isabel
St. James—resident drama coach and drama queen—needs help putting together the
church play. Mama insists April Grace and Myra Sue will help. April’s fall is
now devoted to spending every afternoon with Isabel and Myra Sue—if anyone is
as big of a drama queen as Isabel, it’s Myra Sue. Plus, she’s dumb. (Okay, not
dumb, but "older sister dumb.") If that’s not enough, Isabel is
wreaking havoc in the community trying to get Rough Creek Road paved, the new boy
at school will not leave her
alone, and then Mama drops the biggest bombshell of all . . . April Grace is no
longer going to be the baby of the family . . .”
Series: Book #2 in the “Confessions of
April Grace” series. Review of Book #1 Here! There are three books in this original
series and the first book in a new series about April Grace will be republished
this summer.
Spiritual Content- A few Scriptures are mentioned & quoted; A Prayer; Church
going & a Christmas play; Talks about God & His love; ‘H’s are
capitalized when referring to God; When her mother isn’t feeling well, April Grace
is afraid she’s going to die (which leads into a conversation with a pastor
about God’s love); Mentions of prayers & praying; Many mentions of churches,
church going, services, pastors/reverends, Sunday school classes, & youth
groups; Many mentions of Christmas plays & one about helping others; Mentions
of miracles & believing in God; Mentions of angels; A few mentions of those
& events in the Bible; A few mentions of blessings; A couple mentions of Heaven;
A couple mentions of Bibles; A couple mentions of sins; A mention of a deacon’s
prayer circle; A mention of a dog being older than Methuselah’s grandfather;
*Note: Mentions of Isabel &
Ian not being religious & that April Grace hopes they will realize how the
good things that God has done for them (*Spoiler* Isabel gets roped into
helping with the church’s Christmas play *End of Spoiler*); A couple mentions
of Temple mediating in a scary situation & April Grace wishing she could do
that, but is too scared; A mention of a house feeling haunted.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘blah, blah, blah’, a ‘buck it up’,
a ‘mind your own beeswax’, a ‘sheesh’, a ‘sissy’, two ‘drip’s, two forms of ‘hush
up’, five ‘stupid’s, and twenty-three forms of ‘dumb’; Myra Sue & April
Grace call each other names (like dork, dipstick, brat, etc. It’s less overall
and also less border-line hateful than in the first book); At school, April Grace & others call each other worms,
doofus, hicks, nincompoops, etc. (April Grace also says a couple people have
been beaten with an ugly stick); Eye rolling, sarcasm, & being a smart-aleck;
Mentions
of car wrecks, a death, blood/bleeding, & injuries (barely-above-not-detailed);
Mentions of someone passing out & being very worried (April Grace with her
mom, up to semi-detailed); Mentions of bratty girls at school & them
teasing others (which April Grace tells them they’re being mean); Mentions of smoking
& cigarettes; Mentions of divorces; Mentions of poop; Mentions of throwing
up; A few mentions of April Grace thinking that the hospital in town is a place
where people die; A few mentions of eavesdropping; A couple mentions of roadkill;
A couple mentions of belching; A couple mentions of someone being a pain in the
backside; A mention of someone looking like a corpse in a coffin; A mention of a
person’s stinky armpits;
*Note: *Spoiler* When April Grace
finds out her mother is pregnant, she is not thrilled and is concerned that she
and her sister aren’t enough for their parents. April Grace thinks of some “rotten
thoughts” about the baby. At the very end, she realizes that it was because she
was afraid of the change. *End of the Spoiler*; Many mentions of brand names,
products, & stores (Dr Prepper, Coke, Fanta Orange, Oreos, Kraft Caramel, Snickers,
Mountain Dew, Pepsi, Kool-Aid, Russell Stover, Jell-O, McDonald’s, Trapper
Keeper, Barbie, Kleenex, Polaroid, Yahtzee, Nike, & J. C. Penney); Mentions
of TV shows, singers, & celebrities (As You Like It, Dallas, The Dukes of
Hazzard, Miami Vice, Dynasty, The Waltons, Leave It to Beaver, Jen and the
Holograms, Madonna, Don Johnson, Betty Boop, Ronald Reagan, & Nancy Reagan);
Mentions of car brands; Mentions of books & characters (Head into the Wind,
The Clue in the Diary, Little House on the Prairie); A mention of an alien.
Sexual Content- Mentions of kisses
& kissing (and seeing couples kissing, plus hints of a couple sharing a
cold); Mentions of a boy at school winking at April Grace, flirting with her,
and calling her “babe”, “hot stuff”, “foxy baby”, and other names (she is tempted
to smack him and tells him so when he suggests kissing her in a play): Mentions
of a grandma’s potential boyfriends (including one being ten years younger than
her), dating, & dates; Mentions of crushes; A couple mentions of a guy’s girlfriend
& threatening to break-up; A couple mentions of blushes; A couple mentions
of making goo-goo eyes; A mention of Myra Sue calling a pastor “hunky” (which April
Grace thinks that is totally inappropriate); A mention of April Grace not understanding
why the girls in her class have crushes on boys;
*Note: Myra Sue says Isabel would
never allow such a low-class thing to happen to her such as pregnancy &
that she doesn’t want to ruin her figure; Mentions of early labor, the family
being scared, & the possibility of the baby dying (barely-above-not-detailed);
A few mentions of miscarriages; A few mentions of when Myra Sue wanted to be
super skinny like Isabel and stopped eating (in Book #1, but she is now eating
normally again); A mention of April Grace knowing how babies are made.
-April Grace Reilly, age 11
1st
person P.O.V. of April Grace
Set in 1986
283 pages
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Pre
Teens- 
New
Teens- 
Early
High School Teens- 
Older
High School Teens- 
My
personal Rating- 
While I didn’t find this one as
funny as the prior book in the series, I still found this book to be very
enjoyable! I would consider it to be much cleaner in regards of the content I
mentioned in the first book: the eating disorder mentions, the many mentions of
cussing, and the sisters’ bickering and mean words towards each other. I would definitely
say, though, that the first book has to be read prior to this book because April
Grace mentions about events that happened like, “but you already know about
that”. I liked seeing the faith content play out in this book and the changes
in characters (for the better). This really is a humorous series and I’m
excited to read the next book soon!
See y’all on Friday with a new
review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this
author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
No comments:
Post a Comment