What Alice doesn't tell us is about the books she and Dad read and the impact they had on her. Alice tells us about changing her name (yes, she'd THAT kid), about her family making fun of her funeral for her Beta fish (hmm, maybe Dad should have, you know, been there for her when her grandfather died), about making fun of boys during meetings of the We Hate Boys Club (or some such thing). For his part, Dad didn't even know that she'd left the library.

At ten, she decides to drum up sales at Dad's book fair by making announcements over the school PA system. Rather than talk about her grief, the daughter asks Dad how that made him feel.) Daughter thinks she is precocious and the center of the universe. (When he arrived home from his father's viewing at the funeral home, he complained to his eleven-year-old daughter about his siblings not making room for him. Dad oscillates between being clueless (he didn't notice that his wife left him on Thanksgiving because he was too busy raking leaves) and buddy-buddy with his daughter. The problem is these are two very odd people that I didn't enjoy spending time with. A librarian dad and his daughter promise to read together every night and do so for nearly 9 years. Although I am a fierce advocate of reading, and think no child should go to bed with a story, I am not sure most teenagers and their parents would share reading choices. I am glad the two of them found something they could do together, but I do not think that is the answer for everyone. It seems he just liked to hear himself read and she just liked to listen. There is very little discussion of the books they read. So Alice lets her father read to her every night from the age of 10 until she leaves for college at 18. There is an older sister, but she leaves as early as possible and never looks back. In fact, the father is so clueless that he only notices the mother left when he comes in expecting Thanksgiving turkey and finds it still frozen. There were some hints about a very troubled childhood, including a suicide attempt and abandonment by her mother.

In spite of spending every night reading together, I never felt any warmth or affection between them. I found the language stilted and conversations unrealistic. I am amazed people thought it was well-written, because it felt like a little kid trying to write an adult book. I loved the concept but intensely disliked the book.

Ozma book