October
05
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Swing Sideways by Nanci Turner Steveson – Review by Dana Murphy
If I am being honest, I only grabbed the book from the pile on my nightstand because it looked like an easy read. We were leaving for a three-hour drive to our lake house, and I wanted a break from all the professional reading I had been doing. This book with the skipping girls and raspberries on the cover seemed breezy enough.
So I was as surprised as you when I found myself sitting in my backyard a week later with tears streaming down my cheeks. I closed the book and leaned my head back on the patio chair, thinking about friendship and parenthood and my dad and regret and how sometimes books surprise us.
Swing Sideways by Nanci Turner Steveson is a story about a girl named Annabel who feels stifled by her hovering mother and her overscheduled life. So stifled, in fact, that she has stopped eating. Annabel’s therapist recommends a “summer of freedom’’ and this is when Annabel meets California, a young girl staying at her grandfather’s farm for the summer. California is everything Annabel is not – carefree, courageous, and a bit rebellious. California is on a mission to bring her estranged mother back home to the farm and to reunite her mother and grandfather. The two girls develop an unlikely friendship as they scheme to bring California’s back home. Little does Annabel know that California is hiding a deep secret of her own.
My favorite thing about this story was Annabel and California’s unlikely friendship. The two girls are so different, yet somehow they make so much sense together. I fell in love with them immediately, and you will, too.
No, my favorite thing about this story was Annabel’s mother, Vicki. She is hovering and suffocating (and a bit neurotic if you ask me), but I get her as a mother. Vicki made me think about how sometimes we do more harm than good when we try to protect the ones we love.
Wait, no, my favorite thing about this story was California’s attempts to lure her mother back home. She reminded me so much of Raymie from Kate DiCamillo’s Raymie Nightingale… and of myself. If you have ever longed for a parent, you will understand California.
Actually, my favorite thing about this book was the underlying message about regret and missed chances. “Regret is a terrible thing,” California’s mother reminds us. Yes, yes, it certainly is.
I was just looking for an easy read to pass the time. Instead, I found a story that made my heart swing sideways.
Dana Murphy is an instructional coach in Woodridge, IL. She is a lifetime member of the Nerdy Book Club and has already inducted her daughters as well. This isn’t the first time she misjudged a book by its cover. Dana is co-author of the Two Writing Teachers blog and a contributing writer at Choice Literacy. She tweets at @DanaMurphy143.
I’m convinced, Dana. This book will find its way to my home (and hopefully heart) very soon.
Thank you for this review. It means so much when readers truly understand what we’ve written, and why, and especially when someone is moved by our character’s story. You nailed it. Thank you!
This sounds like a book I need to read. Thanks for the review.
Thank you for this lovely review. There is no thrill greater as a writer than when someone understands so fully what has spilled from our hearts, and has a reaction so similar to the author’s experience while writing something so dear to us. I do so appreciate your clear view of the truth of this book. Not only that, you totally made my day, my week, my year. Thank you.
Your post found me on a day that I had book talked Raymie Nightengale and the graphic novel Sunnyside Up. It was serendipitous for me to read a review of a book that tied into aspects of both of these books. I ordered it at that moment and agree whole-heartedly with your review. I fell in love with these characters for so many reasons. I can’t wait to share this book with my students. Thank you for sharing this beautiful story with us.
It is one of my favorite books. It is sad but great. I love it because it has suspense and is very exciting. Swing Sideways is a great book about true friendship and what can actually happen in life.
Thank you for those lovely words, Finna! In so glad Swing Sideways was meaningful to you. 😊
Nanci