BOOK REVIEW: ‘Ida B’ relates to readers young and old
“Ida B,” written by Katherine Hannigan, was created to inspire and give a fresh taste to the lemons of life.
Ida B is a young and precocious child. She is filled to the brim with excitement and curiosity, a personality vaguely reflective of an older Barbara Park’s Junie B. Jones.
Hannigan portrays Ida B’s world as a magical one, enveloped in the things that all children need such as the outdoors, the love and adoration of her parents and an imagination the size of the big oak trees that reside in her backyard. Ida B’s life is picturesque, yet typical as told by Hannigan.
She is intelligent and spells words like “vivacious” and doesn’t concern herself with mundane things such as deciding what to have for lunch. She spends her time discovering the world around her and immersing herself in the wonders of the land on which her parents live. Like any child, Ida B lives to play.
The novel shifts from the lighthearted perspective of a child’s prerogative, to coming to terms with tumultuous trials that occur at unexpected and inopportune times in people’s lives. In Ida B’s life, the trial is the cancer diagnosis that is given to her mother. This event brings tribulation and heartache into other aspects of Ida B’s life. She has to withstand seeing the land that she loves sold for development in order to pay for medical bills, letting go of her parents and best friends in order to go to public school and other trials of childhood.
Hannigan weaves normalcy and healing into Ida B’s life, introducing new friends, opportunities and dreams to replace what Ida B. has lost.
The book comes full circle with Ida B finding solace and coming to terms with the events that have happened. She eventually reverts back to her carefree character and rediscovers the things that she had lost for a time, learning that sometimes, in order to make room in a heart, you have to break it.
Written in grammar equivalent to that of an 8 year old, the story reminds readers of how children view the world and the uniqueness of each child, of each person. Hannigan wrote in a reflective perspective, continually reminding the reader that the narrator is Ida B.
This novel is an easy read with big lettering and small pages. Young children and elderly adults would be equally capable of reading “Ida B,” a book with messages that pertains to all ages,
–beck.turner@aggiemail.usu.edu