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Reviewed by Keith Mbuya for Readers' Favorite
It is the first day after Christmas at Oakdale Middle School in Chicago, and pressure is already mounting on Grace, a seventh-grader. Her friend Andy is not happy about how his reunion with his absent biological mother, Angela, went. He wants Grace to help him arrange another meetup. Her best friend Charlotte is having trouble at home and needs Grace’s help. After her parents divorced, her mother’s new boyfriend moved into their house with his daughter and has been making Charlotte’s life difficult. But that’s not all. Grace learns that her cousin Maisie is flying in from Scotland to live with Grace’s family because her parents had a huge fallout. Maisie, too, wants Grace to help her understand the reason behind her parents’ disagreement. Grace must rely on her support efforts, dubbed KISSS and KEEP, and her new hobby, dressage, to solve her friends’ problems. How? Find out in Grace’s Mane Event: Family Knots, Book Two by Anna Maria DiDio.
If you are looking for a preteen novel blended with drama, realism, and suspense, Grace’s Mane Event by Anna Maria DiDio is a worthy pick. Treating me to a dramatic introduction, DiDio dropped me in the middle of Grace’s world and dilemma. The storyline moves at a deliberate pace, giving room for the characters’ daily activities and moments of reflection and tension. It helped me bond with the characters and understand their situations. The author highlights how the choices parents make affect preteen kids domestically, socially, and psychologically. As I followed the three kids dealing with their unfortunate circumstances, I could see the compassion and understanding in children that most parents take for granted. Charlotte is willing to put up with Steve and his antagonizing behavior for her mother’s sake. She is young but understands her mother’s fear of being alone and makes compromises for her. Kids will learn how to be good friends through Grace. There are secrets, deception, plot twists, and more in this second installment in the Family Knots series.
