The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty

Laura Moriarty's The Center of Everything is a very lovely read. Evelyn Bucknow is the protagonist, and a child living in the midst of a pretty tough outlook. Evelyn shares all of the drama of a small town and a small town school. She shares with us her dreams, her loves, her joy and her sorrow. As the narrator of the story, Evelyn gives her viewpoint, starting as a young girl in middle school, and growing all the way through high school.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Center of Everything - and especially enjoyed "growing up" with Evelyn. We experience all that she does as she goes through the normal, as well as the exciting, heart-pounding moments of middle school, and then high school. All the experiences she shares - the friendships, the joys, the loves - are similar to the ones we all experienced as we traveled from junior high to high school.

I love the fact that Evelyn is going off to college at the end of the novel, and is going to continue to work to make her dreams come true.  She will not be caught in the drama of this small town life.

As much as I enjoyed reading The Center of Everything there were times when I questioned who the best readers of this book would be. While I believe the book was written for high school students, I think that many adults would love the story. That being said, I also believe that many middle school students would love the story - and that there would be a lot of high school students who would feel the story was too  juvenile for them, especially when compared to other high school-age novels.

So - who do I recommend this book to? If you are an avid reader, and have plenty of time to enjoy "coming of age" novels, you will certainly enjoy this book.

Now this may be a little self-serving, but here is author Laura Moriarty sharing her love of libraries. Enjoy!