Get Real by Betty Hicks
Reviewed by Mimi
Get Real was semi-interesting novel about what makes a family "real". Dez is an up and coming 9th grader who doesn't fit in with her family at all. Her father smokes and quotes dead poets, her mother is messy and unkempt and her little brother is hyperactive while Dez is a full fledged neat freak.
Her best friend Jil has the perfect life with her clean parents and an organized house. Dez can't understand why Jil would ever want to meet her birth mom when her parents are so great and perfect in every way. Soon Jil begins to spend more and more time with her birth mom leaving Dez confused and wishing she knew what made a parent real and why she and her family are so different. But in the end, is a family the people your born to or the people you grow up with? Dez wants to find out.
This book, to me, was fairly boring. The authors words were bland and nothing struck me as "special" about the book. However the subject matter was understandable for teens and adults alike wondering about your family and who you really are. Even in families with fewer dilemmas, children are bound to ask themselves how they came to be the way they are now. If you're willing to look past the slow pace of the book and the constant additions of unnecessary information then this book might be alright. You might even like it.
Librarian's note:
For the classic take on "what makes a parent real" read Silas Marner.