Rutabaga's Reads 2019: Part 19

In this easy-reading, middle-grade novels post, you’ll see stories featuring 10-year-old Blaire Wilson, American Girl’s Girl of the Year for 2019. She’s a chef, crafter, farmer and overall creative girl full of “idea-sparks.”

Blaire (Dec. 26, 2018) by Jennifer Castle.

Welcome to Pleasant View Farm Bed-and-Breakfast! Blaire Wilson and her family own and operate the farm-to-table family business. Her mom runs the restaurant, her dad runs the business and marketing side of the farm + other projects, her grandpa manages the check-in desk and greets guests, her younger brother (Beckett) helps with the chores, and Blaire does all of the above. She also creates recipes with her mom and posts them on the farm’s website. Unfortunately, she’s been hesitant to cook, as she’s had a recent lactose intolerance diagnosis. She’s embarrassed to think she’s singled out for her intolerance, such as having replacement snacks if a classmate brings a birthday treat she can’t eat. Blaire tries to ignore it by diving into other projects. Her dad has been renovating a barn, making it into an event venue. It happens to be that one of the staff, who’s like family, gets engaged (Caterina “Cat” Minardi), and Blaire suggests they be the first to get married in the barn. Trouble is, it’s a-ways away from being finished. Blaire pushes her best friend, Theodora “Thea” Dimitriou, into helping, but her friend quits coming to help. When Blaire is called out on all the time spent on “wedding stuff” and shirking other responsibilities and her friends, will her epic plans turn into epic fails?

            Blaire learns a lot in this story that translates to our everyday lives as well, be you a youth or adult, from time management skills to working hard and being responsible to not forgetting about your friends. It’s also a story that encourages us to not be embarrassed by new situations in our lives (like a food allergy) that affect how we live (and eat). Blaire isn’t without the occasional dramatic display, which I think is an honest representation of most youth. I appreciated this story that promotes teamwork amongst family and how difficult it can be to have something different about oneself. It shows that what may seem like no big deal to one person has a profound effect on another. While the story is light fare, it isn’t fluffy, but like a rich custard, full of the flavors of personalities, busyness, learning and growing.

Blaire Cooks Up a Plan (Dec. 26, 2018) by Jennifer Castle.

Living on the family farm where they all pitch in with the farm-to-table bed-and-breakfast means that life is never boring for Blaire or her family in fictional Bluefield, New York, near the Shawangunk Ridge in a corner of New York’s Hudson Valley. This is evidenced  when Marco Gonzalez shows up of an early morning, and Blaire greets him … in her pajamas after a tenting sleepover with her best friend, Thea. Marco is her favorite designer with a very successful online video channel called “Room Revolutions.” He’s working on a project in the area, and Blaire, much to her awed delight, gets to be involved! But timing will be tricky, as she and her class also have the 5^th Grade Community Service Challenge to think about. Blaire wants to do something awesome, but what? She befriends a young girl, Abby, at the local food pantry, and discovers that she knows what she wants to do to make a positive difference in her community. As it were, it’s a project that’s too big for herself. She’ll need the help of her entire class, including Eli Carr, the reserved new kid. All of the extra hands mean extra help, but will all the extra feet spell catastrophe in the kitchen?

            Blaire’s lactose intolerance isn’t the horror it was to her in the first story, but it hasn’t fully ebbed, either. She remains reticent to share it with her entire class, but she’s always got plenty on her plate to keep her distracted. I liked to watch her grow from someone who wanted to do an awesome project so it’d be displayed in their school’s All-Stars case to someone who just wants to make a difference for the better. In so doing, she doesn’t only empower herself, but her classmates and all she meets at the food pantry, especially young Abby. This story is sweet-as-pie, and I love the story’s focus on volunteerism.