Mom Made Us Write This in the Summer

by Ali Maier

[inlibrisveritas]

Mom Made Us Write This in the Summer is a fun journal style book that focuses on a brother and sister who happened to be twins. When Maggie and Max keep fighting their mother decides to give them summer homework in the form of a journal. They have to pick 10 topics and then they both have to write how they feel about that topic, and through the course of the summer they learn how to appreciate each other.

I love journal books like this, probably because I never wrote in a journal as a kid. It’s always fun to read a story and then have the main characters include pictures and scribbles, it really brings out the character’s depth and helps you connect with them more. Maggie and Max have great personalities that will definitely hit home with a lot of kids their age (10). Maggie is a great example of a strong girl, who enjoys drawing and a ton of ice cream. She’s got a great head on her shoulders, though sometimes she’s prone to over-reacting. Max is a smart kid with a knack for building shotting devices out of paperclips and rubber bands and loves sports, but as his sister puts it he’s sort of ‘clueless’ when it comes ot other people’s feelings.

I loved seeing how Max and Maggie grew over the course of the 10 entries. At first they are argumentative, even in written form, with a lot of blame being tossed about and a lot of frustration but as they story progresses you begin to see how they comes to understand each other a bit better and start seeing how much they actually have in common.

This is definitely a great book for kids in late elementary school and early middle school, and it’s even better if they have siblings to read it with them.