Heyo Femilit readers!
So my last review on here was for Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher and you
can view thirteen reasons why this review was … a little harsh ........
I decided this time around to review something a
bit happier and that I liked a little bit more.
So I chose one of my favorite books by one of my favorite YA authors, the fab Mrs. Lauren Myracle.
Henceforth I bring to you one of my favorite books by her,
Peace Love and Baby Ducks.
Now for a little summary
Carly is a 16 year old girl who lives in upper-class
Atlanta with her parents and sister. After a summer away at a rural camp she
become highly disenfranchised with the upper class life she formally knew and
also has to come to terms with her younger sister Anna, who has grown up while
she was gone.
My Thoughts
Let me tell you why I like this novel
This is a YA novel
This novel has romance and other typical young adult tropes.
But at its core, this is a novel about two sisters navigating the very tumultuous waters that is siblinghood( is that word?).
I myself am an only child, but books like this really help
me to understand sibling relationships so much better, especially the
relationship between a pair of close- in -age sisters.
Upon first reading this book, it seems like it’s gonna be
light and fun; I mean just look at the cover.
(its so adorable i could vomit rainbows)
There’s also a lot of hilariously
wacky subplots as is common in YA-:the title's namesake is a reference to Carly adopting a troop of baby
ducks; Carly’s romance with a Norwegian exchange student friend; Carly’s
friendship with a slightly problematic black chick( but yay for
representation!).
But at its core, this is a novel about a pair of sisters,
learning how to accept one another.
Carly comes back from her rural junket and immediately
starts assigning judgment to everything. Her little sister has grown boobs and
started wearing more revealing clothes; Carly immediately views her differently
all the while trying to keep Anna in the same box she’s content on keeping her
in. She simultaneously judges her sisters more “slutty” behavior while still
trying to keep Anna as her “little ducky wucky” and keep her as the Anna of
youth. Meanwhile Anna is struggling with growing up, having a father who
makes fun of her blossoming shape, and sister who doesn't seem to want to
understand her tastes.
Carly’s judgment doesn't stop there. She judges everyone
around her harshly for things as minuscule as wanting to listen to mainstream
music (gasp! How dare you listen to Fergie! The Hooorrrrooorrr…) She becomes enchanted
with the school “bad boy” because he doesn't follow the “norms” of her religious school ; she becomes
infatuated with the 60’s and the past and shuns the present. So this novel also
heavily examines internal conflict that Carly faces as she tries to circumvent
her discontent at her privileged upbringing and figure out how to be an
“individual” in a society that prizes conformity. At the same time it examines
the harms of how her constant struggle to be an individual ends up really being
disingenuous to herself.
I haven’t gone too indepthly feminist on this one. The most
feminist thing I can say about this book is it really helps to show how complex
the world teenage girls live in. One one hand you’ve got Carly, who struggles
constantly with rebelling against the norms set forth on her by society. She
wears a dashiki at one point( it was hideous), listens to Bob Dylan, stops
shaving her legs; all in a effort to not be a picture perfect mold of what an upper class teenage girl should be. On the
complete other end we’ve got Anna- the picture perfect mold. She’s got blond
hair, big boobs, wears the right clothes. And yet, both of them are still
critiqued by society. Carly is critiqued for obviously trying to rebel the
norms but Anna is still critiqued- by her own parents, by others at school; for
dressing to revealing, for her body shape (as if that’s something she can control).
She’s blamed for guys staring at her at one point. If that’s not the harm of
modern / rape culture at work....
Yet by the end, neither is painted as right or wrong. Carly
is shown to be in a sense wrong, because her rebellion was born of the modern
day “I’m not like other girls” trope.
And Anna is in a sense wrong, though mostly right because she was being true to
herself
I could go on and on about these things. It’s amazing how
even a small fun book of less than 200 pages can provide so much analysis. But
that’s the beauty of literature.
Peace, Love and Baby Ducks is a fun read. But it's also a really
good book which examines a complex sibling relationship. It doesn't end
perfectly happily. But it helps to show how sibling relationships are rarely
ever just simple hate or love. And this book also helps to show the complex
world of girls and how they feel the need to conform or be as individualistic
as possible.
(And it does it all with cute baby ducks. So go read the
book.)
~Lynette
