In Zanesville

The beguiling fourteen-year-old narrator of IN ZANESVILLE is a late bloomer. She is used to flying under the radar-a sidekick, a third wheel, a marching band dropout, a disastrous babysitter, the kind of girl whose Eureka moment is the discovery that "fudge" can't be said with an English accent.


Luckily, she has a best friend, a similarly undiscovered girl with whom she shares the everyday adventures of a 1970s American girlhood, incidents through which a world is revealed, and character is forged.


In time, their friendship is tested-- by their families' claims on them, by a clique of popular girls who stumble upon them as if they were found objects, and by the first, startling, subversive intimations of womanhood.


With dry wit and piercing observation, Jo Ann Beard shows us that in the seemingly quiet streets of America's innumerable Zanesvilles is a world of wonders, and that within the souls of the awkward and the overlooked often burns something radiant and unforgettable.

This book was a flashback to my teens in the 70s. So much was familiar and spot on! I found myself relating to the narrator, nodding my head at the things she said and experienced. This book is laugh-out loud funny, emotionally touching and understandable to readers of all ages. We don't learn the narrator's name except that she shares the name of one of the girls in Little Women.  After the first few pages, I did not even notice as the book was so well written, and I was fully engaged.

Author: Jo Ann Beard
Published: April 2011
Pages: 287
Genre: Fiction
Source: Hachette Book Group
Finished: 5-25-11



This complimentary review copy was received thankfully from Hachette Book Group and in no way influenced my review of this book.  These are my personal thoughts and reactions to the reading of the book.”