November 15, 2018
A (nearly) 10-year-old girl adjusts to country living after moving with her family from the city.City child Rebecca renames herself Becket when she moves with her family to the country, where her veterinarian parents take over the vet clinic near the farm where her father grew up. Becket is noisy, confident, and full of life, narrating in an enthusiastic first person, present tense. She announces "Beautiful Alerts" when she sees beauty--a sunset, a thunderstorm, Gran--and says something when she sees something, often to amusing effect ("Stranger Danger!" she warns her mother at the country train station, when a man asks the time). In fact, Becket is a regular laundry list of confidently delivered safety sayings, and it's just one of her many original and sparkling traits. What doesn't sparkle, however, is the story's subtle undercurrent of admonition directed at Becket's boisterousness and confidence. "A little lower," the camp counselor tells her. "Lower the volume," her father says. These messages, underscoring the societal notion that girls should be quiet and self-effacing, are not delivered to boy characters and are, thankfully, ignored by Becket. Otherwise, the storyline is warm and amusing as Becket and her two siblings navigate their new life on a farm. A brown-skinned family from Peru on a nearby alpaca farm adds some diversity, as do the black-presenting friends who visit the Branches from the city; the Branches themselves are white. Pham's energetic spot art enhances Griffin's characterizations.The ebullience of an irrepressible female protagonist is occasionally threatened by gender-typing in this otherwise entertaining story. (Fiction. 8-10)
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February 1, 2019
Gr 2-4-Becket Branch and her family are moving from the city to her grandmother's farm in the country, and Becket is very excited about all the changes that are coming her way. She keeps a watchful eye for what she calls "Beautiful alerts" or any wonderful thing she wants to make a note of. She also keeps a list of all the new experiences she will be having as a country kid, including doing barnyard chores and making a new best friend. Naturally, she hits a few rough patches along the way. The animals don't always cooperate, her new potential best friend seems more interested in befriending her twin brother, and her senior citizen city dog isn't quite the country dog she was wishing for. But it is all part of the many new experiences that country life has to offer. Becket is an outgoing, refreshingly self-confident protagonist, and although she may sometimes come across as a bit pushy to her fellow characters, her enthusiasm is infectious. Readers will appreciate her ability to bounce back from whatever life hands her. Pham's sketch drawings scattered throughout enhance the energy and humor of the story. VERDICT Give this to kids who enjoy stories with plucky female protagonists. Recommended for most collections.-Jessica Marie, Salem Public Library, OR
Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
May 6, 2019
After her veterinarian parents decide to move from the city to live on Gran’s Blackberry Farm, Becket Branch, 9, doesn’t think she’ll miss much—except, maybe, her best friend Caleb, the apartment she’s grown up in, and the egg and cheese on a roll from Sugarman’s Deli. Still, she is determined to put on a brave, happy face so that her twin brother, Nicholas, won’t be even more upset about the move then he already is. Armed with her growing list, “How to Be a Country Kid,” Becket is ready to have new adventures (standing up to a mean chicken, attending Young Explorers Camp), make new friends, and (she hopes) get a dog. Things don’t end up going the way she plans, though, and she soon discovers that country living isn’t as easy as she’d thought. Heartwarming prose by Griffin (the Oodlethunks series) is as energetic as Becket herself, while expressive spot art by Pham (Stop That Yawn!) reinforces the story’s action and breaks up the text for younger readers. In the end, Becket learns to take Gran’s message to heart: “That’s life.... Most reliable thing about it are the twists and turns.” Final art not seen by PW. Ages 7–11.
Starred review from December 1, 2018
Grades 2-4 *Starred Review* Rebecca has been a city kid her whole life, but now that her parents are taking over a rural animal clinic, the family is going to help Gran run things on Blackberry Farm, where her dad grew up. Unlike for her twin brother, Nicholas, and her older sister, Caroline, change isn't hard for Rebecca. Determined not to become a country bumpkin, she coins the cool-kid nickname Becket and peels her eyes for all the Beautiful Alerts she can spot in the countryside. But the local summer camp?which should be a banana-split amount of fun?is only a bran-muffin amount of fun. As Nicholas makes more friends than she does, Becket begins to droop. On top of that, barnyard chores are harder than she expected and involve far more crazy chickens. This is not just a terrific book about sharing friends with siblings, rolling with changes, and the difficulty of making new friends after a move; it is also (spoiler alert) a terrific, gentle, earnest book for coping with pet loss. Given the quality of Griffin's prolific body of work, her humor, pathos, quick character development, and enjoyable dialogue are just as good as ever, and Pham's illustrations (even in their unfinished form) are charming and beautifully humorous in how they capture emotional expression. A sparkling story of weathering change.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)
March 1, 2019
Nine-year-old Rebecca (who renames herself Becket ) moves with her family from the city to the farm where her father grew up. Older sister Caroline is excited about having her own room, while Becket's twin Nicholas isn't much for change in any form. Becket specializes in enthusiasm?her mother is the first of several characters to suggest that an off-button or volume control might come in handy?and she dives in with a list of steps to become a country kid. She learns her way around the farm animals, including a crotchety chicken named Laying Godiva, and adjusts to a world where stranger danger is less of a concern than don't fall asleep in the field where Farmer Jess is baling hay. She also learns to adjust when Nicholas, who has always needed her help, begins to break out of his shell. Pham's interspersed drawings capture the siblings' squabbles and accomplishments, and Becket is clearly portrayed in both words and pictures. Griffin does a good job of presenting the low-stakes conflicts of the book (overzealous lemonade stand promotion, a disastrous visit from a city friend) with the full import they carry for a nine-year-old, and the hazards of Becket's sometimes excessive exuberance are addressed without ultimately dampening her spirits. An enjoyable novel for young readers beginning to explore the world on their own terms. sarah rettger
(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
July 1, 2019
When Rebecca (a.k.a. "Becket") moves from the city to the family farm, she enthusiastically creates a list of steps to become a "country kid." She learns her way around the farm animals, and to adjust when twin Nicholas becomes more outgoing. Pham's interspersed drawings capture the siblings' squabbles and accomplishments, and Griffin presents the enjoyable novel's low-stakes conflicts with the full import they carry for a nine-year-old.
(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)