Status
Available
Call number
Call number
FIC SLO
Collection
Description
Unhappy about being sent to the same summer camp after their fathers start dating, Bett and Avery, eleven, eventually begin scheming to get the couple back together after a break-up. Told entirely through emails.
Publication
Dial Books (2019), 304 pages
Original publication date
2019
Original language
English
Language
User reviews
LibraryThing member jmoncton
This is a funny and heartfelt story told exclusively through letters and emails between two tween girls. Avery Bloom and Bett Devlin live on opposite sides of the country and are polar opposites in personality. However, when their single dads fall in love, they begin a relationship at first via
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emails and then in person. This is a wonderful story that captures the essence of friendship and family. Show Less
LibraryThing member HandelmanLibraryTINR
A moving, exuberant, laugh-out-loud novel about friendship and family, told entirely in emails and letters. Avery Bloom, who's bookish, intense, and afraid of many things, particularly deep water, lives in New York City. Bett Devlin, who's fearless, outgoing, and loves all animals as well as the
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ocean, lives in California. What they have in common is that they are both twelve years old, and are both being raised by single, gay dads. Show Less
LibraryThing member LibrarianRyan
I did not know what I was getting into when I opened the pages of this book. It was chosen as a mailed markup book club where we each pick a title. This is not normally a book I would have chosen, but I am so glad someone in my group did. It was simply wonderful.
This book is a collection of letters
This book feels so much like the parent trap (Haley Mills version only) without being a copy or a retelling. You get that same happy place feeling of two girls who just try to get everyone around them to want what they want so that everyone can be as happy as they.
I love that this book is told as a collection of letters and emails. It gives the reader an inside look at what each character is thinking. I appreciate that the letters were not just from Avery and Bett, but from both dads, grams, Betty, and even camp directors and counselors.
Once you start this book, you will have a hard time putting it down. I read it in less than 24 hours. If i hadn’t started it at 11 pm, I would have probably read it right through to the end. It reads fast and has so many great things between its pages. I am thankful to my friend who said, hey all, let's read this. It will now go on my always recommend pile. It will fit so many categories, and for so many reading prompts, and so many different reasons you could pair it to a read. Love this book!
#ReadHarder
#Booked19 #remindsmeofahappyplace
#LittleLoveBingo #wanderingbookaneer
#NancyDrewChallenge #MCdliesonanairplane
This book is a collection of letters
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between two girls who never want to meet, but are destined to be sisters. They find out that their gay dads are sending them to camp so that the dads can go on a romantic trip to China. While at camp the girls are to at least get to know each other. But plans are almost ruined with the first letters as Avery, aka Night Owl, gets her first letter from Bett, aka Dogfish, about wanting to break up their dads and keep their families as they are. Brett is very much a go getter. She is active, sporty, and sometimes runs away with ideas that could get her in trouble. Avery is very studious and cautious, sometimes to the extreme. These girls will have a year they never forget.This book feels so much like the parent trap (Haley Mills version only) without being a copy or a retelling. You get that same happy place feeling of two girls who just try to get everyone around them to want what they want so that everyone can be as happy as they.
I love that this book is told as a collection of letters and emails. It gives the reader an inside look at what each character is thinking. I appreciate that the letters were not just from Avery and Bett, but from both dads, grams, Betty, and even camp directors and counselors.
Once you start this book, you will have a hard time putting it down. I read it in less than 24 hours. If i hadn’t started it at 11 pm, I would have probably read it right through to the end. It reads fast and has so many great things between its pages. I am thankful to my friend who said, hey all, let's read this. It will now go on my always recommend pile. It will fit so many categories, and for so many reading prompts, and so many different reasons you could pair it to a read. Love this book!
#ReadHarder
#Booked19 #remindsmeofahappyplace
#LittleLoveBingo #wanderingbookaneer
#NancyDrewChallenge #MCdliesonanairplane
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LibraryThing member AMQS
I am a sucker for epistolary novels, and this one for middle grade readers was awesome. Bett, a 12 year-old in California emails Avery, a 12 year-old in New York out of the blue. It seems that their dads, after meeting in Chicago while both were on work trips, have started dating and things are
I just loved this book, and read it in nearly one sitting. Avery and Bett are terrific characters, and are joined by other wonderful characters contributing their own notes, letters, emails, and texts. Comparisons to The Parent Trap are fair, I think, though this is truly a 21st century story, with the timeless message that family can be a choice and that love is a gift.
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getting serious. Serious enough that they're thinking of a future together and are sending the girls off to summer camp together so they can get to know one another and hopefully become friends. Well, Bett and Avery are not having it. They are each very close to their respective dads, and quite like their lives exactly the way they already are, thank you very much. At camp, they contrive never to speak, and never to participate in the same activities, which thankfully, is easy as the girls are pretty much polar opposites. Bett is fearless, outspoken, and loves adventure, any kind of water sport, and animals. Avery is an indoor girl interested in reading, writing, crafts, and is terribly afraid of germs, random accidents, and especially of water. Yet they keep emailing. They want to stay one step ahead of their dads and prevent any major life changes. And they ask each other typical girl questions about likes and dislikes, crushes, periods, lip gloss, and the like. And of course, they develop a strong bond that carries them through the very eventful year that follows.I just loved this book, and read it in nearly one sitting. Avery and Bett are terrific characters, and are joined by other wonderful characters contributing their own notes, letters, emails, and texts. Comparisons to The Parent Trap are fair, I think, though this is truly a 21st century story, with the timeless message that family can be a choice and that love is a gift.
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LibraryThing member lycomayflower
An epistolary middle grade novel about two girls who discover their dads are dating and set out to sabotage the dads' plans for the girls to become friends in anticipation of merging their families. The comparison to The Parent Trap is inevitable, and it's a good comp for the initial premise (if
This was a delight to read. I loved all the characters, and I thought Sloan and Wolitzer captured the ever shifting and morphing idiosyncratic interests of pre-adolescents perfectly. The format was fun, especially as we occasionally get letters (emails, mostly, really) from other characters aside from the two girls. Recommended.
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inside out) and the tone--though this novel is not a retelling of tPT, for the story goes in entirely its own directions. This was a delight to read. I loved all the characters, and I thought Sloan and Wolitzer captured the ever shifting and morphing idiosyncratic interests of pre-adolescents perfectly. The format was fun, especially as we occasionally get letters (emails, mostly, really) from other characters aside from the two girls. Recommended.
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LibraryThing member sharonstern
A charming and funny epistolary novel told through the emails of two pre-teen girls. I loved the way their voices changed over time as they grow up and grow into their friendship.
LibraryThing member Salsabrarian
Emails and letters tell the story of footloose Bett and uptight Avery, whose dads met and fell in love and are on the verge of marrying. Bett and Avery feel this is a bad idea for all. But as the men’s relationship founders, the girls’ develop a best-friendship that takes them to unexpected
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places within themselves and out. Fun, with plot twists (that the savvy readers will see coming). Show Less
LibraryThing member out-and-about
This book made me so happy. All the characters were people I wanted to know and felt like I already did know. The plot was just twisty enough to make me read it out loud in the car to my husband, a committed non-reader who enjoyed it as much as I did. Definite feel-good book.
LibraryThing member ewyatt
Avery and Bette are not happy when they find their dad's are dating and plotting for the girls to meet and become friends. The book, all told in emails and letters, traces their relationship over the course of a couple years. The girls are so different in temperament, but they each bring something
The girls first meet at summer camp. Even when the relationship with their dad's fall apart, they are determined to stay in each other's lives despite living across the country from each other. There is an emphasis on honesty in their relationships with each other, even if they try to keep the adults in their lives in the dark and manipulate them a bit.
A charming story with two independent girls who grow a lot over the course of the story and become the glue around which this extended family-by-choice is formed.
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to the friendship and become stronger together. Their bond extends their family - from bringing in Bette's grandma and Avery's biological mom. The girls first meet at summer camp. Even when the relationship with their dad's fall apart, they are determined to stay in each other's lives despite living across the country from each other. There is an emphasis on honesty in their relationships with each other, even if they try to keep the adults in their lives in the dark and manipulate them a bit.
A charming story with two independent girls who grow a lot over the course of the story and become the glue around which this extended family-by-choice is formed.
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LibraryThing member reader1009
diverse children's middlegrade fiction (two 12 year old girls, one of whom is incidentally half-Black, eventually become friends when their dads become a couple)
Story told through letters/emails. This was cute, though the ending dragged a little.
Story told through letters/emails. This was cute, though the ending dragged a little.
LibraryThing member jennybeast
Hilarious, madcap, full of ridiculous adventures between two highly dramatic 12 year olds and their associated families. Made me laugh out loud several times -- love the parent trap aspects, loved the over the top STEM camp and the over-the-top old school camp. Loved the ridiculous characters and
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the way their connections bind them. Show Less
LibraryThing member mcelhra
I’ve been reading Pamela Paul and Maria Russo’s How to Raise a Reader and they recommended this book in the Books that Make Us Laugh section. It sounded really cute and I’m not above reading middle-grade fiction for my own enjoyment. I didn’t realize until I brought my copy home that it was
Avery and Bett don’t have much in common except for the fact that they are both 12 years old and both being raised by single gay dads. Bett is a California surfer girl who’s laid back and goes with the flow. Avery lives in New York and is Type A and very anxious. One day, Bett emails Avery, who she has never met, that she has discovered their dads are in a relationship. Not only that, their dads are planning on sending them both away to the same camp for the summer so they can get to know each other. Neither Bett nor Avery are happy about this turn of events. They both want their dads all to themselves. And together they form a plan to make that happen…
This story is told through emails and letters. As a parent of a 12-year-old girl, I can vouch that the authors have captured what 12-year-old girls are like perfectly. This book is really funny but has some serious and suspenseful moments in it too. Even though it starts off as sort of a reverse Parent Trap, it takes some turns that I was not expecting. I was impressed that middle-grade fiction could keep me guessing like this book did!
To Night Owl from Dogfish is a really sweet book. Highly recommended!
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written by Meg Wolitzer, who wrote The Interestings (4 stars from me) and Holly Goldberg Sloan, who wrote Counting by 7s (5 stars from me). I knew then that this would be a great book.Avery and Bett don’t have much in common except for the fact that they are both 12 years old and both being raised by single gay dads. Bett is a California surfer girl who’s laid back and goes with the flow. Avery lives in New York and is Type A and very anxious. One day, Bett emails Avery, who she has never met, that she has discovered their dads are in a relationship. Not only that, their dads are planning on sending them both away to the same camp for the summer so they can get to know each other. Neither Bett nor Avery are happy about this turn of events. They both want their dads all to themselves. And together they form a plan to make that happen…
This story is told through emails and letters. As a parent of a 12-year-old girl, I can vouch that the authors have captured what 12-year-old girls are like perfectly. This book is really funny but has some serious and suspenseful moments in it too. Even though it starts off as sort of a reverse Parent Trap, it takes some turns that I was not expecting. I was impressed that middle-grade fiction could keep me guessing like this book did!
To Night Owl from Dogfish is a really sweet book. Highly recommended!
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LibraryThing member deslivres5
To Night Owl from Dogfish is an epistolary novel, written mainly in email and text messages, but some real letters too.
The two main leads (Bett and Avery) are 12-year old girls, one living in NYC, one in CA. They each have a single gay dad and their dads' relationship throws the girls together,
I listened to the audiobook and the narrators were great!
My only criticism was of the reading of the email messages when there were TONS of replies to the same thread. The narrators read out EVERY single "Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:". It had me praying for a change in the Subject line! If I had read the novel, I would have just skipped reading all of those "Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:"s. I wish there was a vocal equivalent to that skip:-)
The two main leads (Bett and Avery) are 12-year old girls, one living in NYC, one in CA. They each have a single gay dad and their dads' relationship throws the girls together,
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reluctantly, with unexpected results.I listened to the audiobook and the narrators were great!
My only criticism was of the reading of the email messages when there were TONS of replies to the same thread. The narrators read out EVERY single "Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:". It had me praying for a change in the Subject line! If I had read the novel, I would have just skipped reading all of those "Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:"s. I wish there was a vocal equivalent to that skip:-)
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ISBN
0525553231 / 9780525553236