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A review by mrskatiefitz
Always, Abigail by Nancy J. Cavanaugh
4.0
Abigail and her two best friends plan to achieve middle school popularity by joining the pom squad. Unfortunately, while her two friends each win a spot, Abigail is only accepted as an alternate. Rejected by the popular girls who are full-fledged poms, she finds herself losing popularity points, and fast. Then Abigail's strict, old-fashioned English teacher announces a letter-writing assignment for which Abigail is paired with Gabby Marco, the class outcast. Abigail is mortified by having to correspond with a girl who laughs randomly in class, lives with her lumberjack older brother, and is decidedly unpopular- that is, until she realizes how much more fun she has with Gabby than with her so-called friends.
While this exact story has been told again and again, Nancy Cavanaugh still finds a way to make it appealing. In a different twist on the popular diary format, Abigail tells her entire story in lists describing what happens to her, how she feels about it, and what her plans are. Each list is given a specific headline, and sometimes lists only contain one very short item, so this breaks up the reading into much more manageable chunks than just chapters. (The format is very similar to what Charise Mericle Harper does in the Just Grace books.) Many pages are also decorated with various doodles and embellishments, providing for lots of text-free space. The reader feels that the story is going by quickly based on how often she turns the pages.
From an adult perspective, the best character in this book is Abigail's English teacher, Miss Hendricks, who is older, but wise, and who makes demands on her students that encourage them to become better people. Though Abigail makes fun of her teacher, calling her The Hawk, even she sees the value of this woman's teaching methods before the story's end. While hard-nosed teachers are something of a cliche, Miss Hendricks is a lot more "with it" than many adults in kids' books, and she is worthy of much admiration. (Especially wonderful is her suggestion that Gabby and Abigail get together to perform story times for the kindergarteners - my children's librarian heart just sang when I read about their plans!)
Always Abigail belongs on the never-ending list of middle grade titles about popularity, along with other recent titles such as 30 Days of No Gossip, How to Rock Braces and Glasses, Best Friends... Until Something Better Comes Along, and Mission (Un)Popular.
While this exact story has been told again and again, Nancy Cavanaugh still finds a way to make it appealing. In a different twist on the popular diary format, Abigail tells her entire story in lists describing what happens to her, how she feels about it, and what her plans are. Each list is given a specific headline, and sometimes lists only contain one very short item, so this breaks up the reading into much more manageable chunks than just chapters. (The format is very similar to what Charise Mericle Harper does in the Just Grace books.) Many pages are also decorated with various doodles and embellishments, providing for lots of text-free space. The reader feels that the story is going by quickly based on how often she turns the pages.
From an adult perspective, the best character in this book is Abigail's English teacher, Miss Hendricks, who is older, but wise, and who makes demands on her students that encourage them to become better people. Though Abigail makes fun of her teacher, calling her The Hawk, even she sees the value of this woman's teaching methods before the story's end. While hard-nosed teachers are something of a cliche, Miss Hendricks is a lot more "with it" than many adults in kids' books, and she is worthy of much admiration. (Especially wonderful is her suggestion that Gabby and Abigail get together to perform story times for the kindergarteners - my children's librarian heart just sang when I read about their plans!)
Always Abigail belongs on the never-ending list of middle grade titles about popularity, along with other recent titles such as 30 Days of No Gossip, How to Rock Braces and Glasses, Best Friends... Until Something Better Comes Along, and Mission (Un)Popular.