by Johanna Hurwitz
The Up and Down Spring, written by Johanna Hurwitz, is an excellent book. A vacation from school is always a time kids look forward to. The vacation in this book is full of twists and turns.
This book is about three kids, and the ups and downs on their spring vacation. Bolivia lives in Ithaca, and her friends live in Upstate New York. Rory hates to fly. Derek has a hamster named Hamlet. Bolivia planned every minute of their visit. They have two big adventures, and a bunch of problems.
What I liked about the book is the way it shows different examples of friendship. One example is that even though the three friends live miles away from each other, they still stay in touch. I also like how each one of them is different in their own way, but they still like each other. Another way they showed friendship was when Bolivia changed plans she had made to help out her friends. That shows true friendship.
What I think the theme of the book is, is that things don't always go as they are planned. True friends understand when plans have to change. I also think the message is to let your friends know if you hate doing something, so then they don't plan to do it with you. It is important to involve all friends that will be doing an activity in the decision of what to do. This book is very good at showing how true friends treat one another and the way to help solve conflicts when they come up.
Reviewed by Beth 10/02