Okay, before I tell you about Leeva at Last, I want you to locate your own book wish list or library shopping list and add this book NOW! Readers aged 9+ will LOVE meeting Leeva and her friends and teachers are also sure to thoroughly enjoy reading this book as a class serial story - not with work sheets - just for the joy of a terrific story with that all important very happy ending. There are 54 short chapters in this book which has 300 pages set in a good size font with a sprinkling of illustrations by Matthew Cordell. Fans of Matilda will love meeting brave Leeva as will readers who enjoyed Flora and Ulysses -The illuminated adventures by Kate DiCamillo.
Leeva Thornblossom has the most despicable parents you will ever meet in a story unless you have met Matilda's parents from the famous book by Roald Dahl and also the parents from The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry but to me these parents seem even worse than all of those. Mayor Thornblossom and her husband Dolton only care about fame (that's the Mayor) and money (that's her dad). Now that Leeva is old enough she has become their slave. She cooks, cleans, mows the lawn and completes money problems for her father who is the town treasurer. These parents are so completely dreadful I can hardly begin to describe them. Here is an example showing how Leeva got her name:
Nurse Blackberry needs Mayor Thornblossom to fill in the birth certificate forms for her new baby. The Mayor has been so demanding.
"She was fed up, ready to snap. And now here she was, holding the birth certificate, asking what the new baby' name was and hearing in reply, 'Don't you know who I am? You do it, nurse!'. Well, Nurse Blackberry snapped. 'Look! The last name is filled in already: Thornblossom! All that's left is ... "first name. Middle name ... leave a space."
"Each time her parents related the story, they cackled in glee. But Leeva knew it wasn't funny. In fact, it was a pitiful thing to have been named so carelessly."
And here is how Leeva makes her own shoes from the packets which contain her father's daily food called Cheezaroni:
"Cheezaroni bore a glancing resemblance to macaroni and cheese, except that the macaroni and the cheese were indistinguishable from each other and they were both indistinguishable from the box, so even when you followed the instructions perfectly, what you ended up with was a flavourless cardboardy mash that smelt powerfully of feet."
"They were her sandals - a fairly new pair. She was proud of these shoes, which she fashioned by molding tinfoil Cheezaroini trays around her feet, then strapping them on with masking tape. In winter, she molded a second Cheezaroni tray over the top of each foot to keep the heat in. The shoes were never comfortable, and the tape left itchy bands around her ankles, but the silvery flash they made when they caught the light was lovely."
More about those parents:
"Now, Reader, Leeva had known her mother and father were liars, of course. According to the stories they told each other at night, lying was pretty much all they did in their jobs ... But it had never occurred to her that they would lie to her, their own daughter."
Her father is greedy and obsessed with making and saving money and her mother is vain, greedy and obsessed with becoming famous.
Luckily, yes there is always a luckily, next door to her house Leeva discovers a library. Harry, nephew of the librarian Mrs Pauline Flowers (yes she is just like Miss Honey) gives Leeva a precious library card and the courage to step away from her parents and all their tortuous rules. Mrs Flowers also gives Leeva perfect books, delicious cookies every day, yummy lunches and later a flask of extra cold milk. Leeva also discovers toast for the first time thanks to the kind librarian.
Things that brighten Leeva's day:
- The daily newspaper - the Nutsmore Weekly and their word of the day.
- The television soap opera - The Winds of our Tides - this is where Leeva has learnt about 'real life'.
- The program Vim and Vigor at any Age - a television exercise program
- Cookies made by Mrs Flower - chocolate chunk with toasted hazelnuts; Champurradas from Guatemala; and many more from every country in the world
- Wonderful library books such as Charlotte's Web; New Kid; Where the mountain meets the Moon; Bud, not Buddy; Other words for Home; One Crazy Summer; and Because of Winn Dixie. By the end of her first week she has read 70 books!
- Her new "pet" Bob the badger
- Special friends - Osmund, Fern, Harry and his aunt.
Read these reviews:
I marvel at the variety of books written by Sara Pennypacker from the serious survival book Pax, the fun of Clementine and the powerful environmental message of Sparrow Girl.
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